Archive for February, 2018

Over 150 Concerned Citizens Sign Solidarity Statement Supporting The Striking TISS Students

Over 150 Concerned Citizens Sign Solidarity Statement Supporting The Striking TISS Students

A Solidarity Statement signed by more than 150 persons including activists, academicians, TISS-alumni, scholars, intellectuals, journalist, writers, teachers, lawyers, artists, filmmakers, students, researchers, professionals and others concerned citizens has supported the students movements and their rightful demands in all the four campuses of TISS. Radhika Vemula, the mother of former Hyderabad Central University scholar Rohith Vemula – who was institutionally[Read More…]

by 27/02/2018 3 comments India
Reimagining Education: TISS Strike Is Part Of A Much Bigger Struggle

Reimagining Education: TISS Strike Is Part Of A Much Bigger Struggle

When I joined Tata Institute of Social Sciences (hereon TISS) in 2014 to pursue Masters in Development Policy, Planning and Practice from its Tuljapur campus, one thing which struck me was the considerable number of students coming from lower class and caste background or from other marginalized communities unlike many other ‘elite’ social sciences Institutions in India. As I hailed[Read More…]

by 27/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
The White Man’s High-Rises Growing Everywhere in the New World Like Deadly Noxious Weeds
Photo: Peter Rae

The Madness Of Unchecked Growth: A Conspiratorial World View

The White European conspiratorial model of constant, unbridled growth and expansion, vigorously exported and aggressively promoted throughout the New World, is a form of sheer madness: mentally, culturally and spiritually. It knows no allegiance to any one country, people or way of life other than to growth and expansion for their own sake and the aggrandizement of but a few.[Read More…]

by 27/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Trump, North Korea And Post-Olympic Angst

Trump, North Korea And Post-Olympic Angst

With the icicles still glinting with the closing ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic games, US President Donald Trump, like any disgruntled child, wanted to reassert his relevance.  Little Rocket Man had assumed diplomatic pose, or at the very least adopted a stance of considered caution towards his South Korean counterparts.  While the US seemed stubborn and sulky, South Korea[Read More…]

by 27/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
China: It’s Official – Xi Jinping Aims To Be “Dictator For Life”

China: It’s Official – Xi Jinping Aims To Be “Dictator For Life”

Lifting of presidential term limits plunges China and its autocratic regime into unchartered territory The news from Beijing is historic – nothing less than a political earthquake with repercussions around the world. At its upcoming “parliamentary session” (the National People’s Congress, NPC, which starts next week), China will remove the two-term limit for the presidency and vice presidency. This confirms what[Read More…]

by 27/02/2018 1 comment World
DACA Deadline Looms, 1.8 Million Lives at Stake— This Fascist Horror Must be Defeated!

DACA Deadline Looms, 1.8 Million Lives at Stake— This Fascist Horror Must be Defeated!

Noon, February 26. The US Supreme Court today declined to clear the way for the Trump regime to end DACA on March 5 and immediately begin deporting those whose DACA status has expired.   Two federal district judges ruled that DACA recipients should be allowed to renew their status while Trump’s order to end DACA is being appealed. This Supreme Court[Read More…]

by 27/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
The Syrian White Helmets at the Oscars . . . Again

The Syrian White Helmets at the Oscars . . . Again

This year, against the background of a massive US escalation of military force in Syria, “Last Men in Aleppo”, a documentary film about the White Helmets of Syria, has been nominated for an Oscar.   Last year, a documentary film called “The White Helmets” won an Oscar for documenting a story that had just unraveled after the liberation of east Aleppo.[Read More…]

by 27/02/2018 1 comment Arts/Literature
Extra-Judicial Killings Mount In BJP-Ruled India

Extra-Judicial Killings Mount In BJP-Ruled India

  The Uttar Pradesh (UP) state government of Yogi Adityanath continued allowing police encounters since BJP came to power in the state in March 2017, Caravan News of India reported Monday (Feb. 26, 2018). In 10 months of its regime, the state police conducted 1038 encounters killing 32 alleged criminals, and the Yogi government has officially boasted of these killings.[Read More…]

by 27/02/2018 1 comment India
Pity The Rich Men In Posh Areas, They Can’t Afford To Pay For Car Parking On The Road

Pity The Rich Men In Posh Areas, They Can’t Afford To Pay For Car Parking On The Road

Pity the rich, wrote American popular comedian Will Durst recently in a satirical vein. They face too many problems. No body robs the poor but the rich are always afraid of robbers. But actually the rich rob the poor. He then went on to refer to the rich as open cancer sores on the face of society. One was reminded[Read More…]

by 27/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce reacts during House of Representatives Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, February 12, 2018.  (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING

Australian Government Sex Ban  Echoes Those Of Deep South, Nazi Germany, Apartheid South Africa & Apartheid Israel

  Australia is ruled by a Liberal Party-National Party Coalition. The Australian Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce (National Party) has been castigated by PM Malcolm Turnbull (Liberal Party) for leaving his wife and 4 daughters and finding love with his former media adviser who is expecting a baby.  Self-righteous Turnbull has announced a ban on Ministerial sex with staffers, and Joyce[Read More…]

by 26/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Microfinance or Debt Trap? What The Poor Don’t Know

Microfinance or Debt Trap? What The Poor Don’t Know

Microfinance continues to thrive despite being under fire from legions of critics. One plausible reason for the lingering faith in the power of microfinance is that it provides a convenient strategy for investors to demonstrate that they are active fighters against poverty and are trying to save the poor while making a substantial amount of money from them. It is built[Read More…]

by 26/02/2018 2 comments India
António Guterres Wake UP – It Can Turn Into A Nuclear War

António Guterres Wake UP – It Can Turn Into A Nuclear War

  Somedays back, I found a passionately written petition in my mail box appealing for ending tension on the line vivisecting Jammu and Kashmir (LOC). The petition from a journalist friend from Jammu was addressed to Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan. The appeal on behalf of the citizen of Jammu and Kashmir rightly ‘apprehend that the growing tension will[Read More…]

by 26/02/2018 2 comments South Asia
Arab Leader’s Shame And The Bloodbath At Ghouta (Syria)

Arab Leader’s Shame And The Bloodbath At Ghouta (Syria)

Are the Arab-Muslim leaders waiting for the unknown and unthinkable catastrophic end to their own life and time in history?  To inhabit the world of new political imagination beyond the obvious horizon, these leaders could encompass the same ending as happened to the Romans.  Would the estranged Arab leaders ever know and understand the cruelty of civilian bombardment, pains, destruction[Read More…]

by 26/02/2018 3 comments World
Hillel And Facebook Censorship:  Conflating Zionism With Judaism

Hillel And Facebook Censorship:  Conflating Zionism With Judaism

In applying its community standards, Facebook frequently conflates anti-Zionist attacks with anti-Semitism.  A case in point is a post for which I have just been put in Facebook jail (i.e., blocked from posting for 30 days).  The post says, “#Hillel, a racist organization, has as much place on university campuses as does the #KKK.” And Facebook removed it, saying: “We[Read More…]

by 26/02/2018 2 comments Palestine
Normalizing Nukes, Pentagon-Style

Normalizing Nukes, Pentagon-Style

If you’re having trouble sleeping thanks to, well, you know who… you’re not alone. But don’t despair. A breakthrough remedy has just gone on the market.  It has no chemically induced side effects and, best of all, will cost you nothing, thanks to the Department of Defense.  It’s the new Nuclear Posture Review, or NPR, among the most soporific documents of our[Read More…]

by 26/02/2018 1 comment World
An Epidemic of U.S Mass Shooting When There Can Be an Answer

An Epidemic of U.S Mass Shooting When There Can Be an Answer

That there is a change in the air is evident this time.  Since the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida on February 14, there have been demonstrations by school kids, their parents and others, confrontations of politicians including the president, and a general feeling that enough is enough. The most prominent opposition to gun control, the National Rifle Association (NRA)[Read More…]

by 26/02/2018 1 comment World
Assam And The NRC Update

Assam And The NRC Update

Amid cacophonies of blowing horns and revving engines of lumbering trucks on the national highways 37 and 31 and the deafening whistles of diesel locomotives across the state, one could easily hear the hues and cries of the most Bengali speaking people in Assam.For them the new year began with utter suspense as millions of Assamese woke up to a[Read More…]

by 26/02/2018 5 comments India
Songs of the Dead

Songs of the Dead

Abandoned, forgotten passwords, we will be buried and burnt. Or replaced. Our laughter stripped of its sound bytes will freeze in frames. Our conversations will loiter in the marketplaces of lost cities Their wise songs have gone, dashed against cliffs. Wiping off dewdrops from grass lips, the day stretches. Its grayness splits. A bird sings from a branch. Both are[Read More…]

by 26/02/2018 1 comment Arts/Literature
 “Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 9: Who Led The Movement Astray?

 “Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 9: Who Led The Movement Astray?

One of the most prominent people in the contemporary labour movement of India, Shankar Guha Niyogi, lost his life for the cause three decades ago. From the time he began his work in Chhattisgarh in the nineteen sixties until his martyrdom in 1991, he led innumerable class struggles. He was the prime mover of a new stream in the labour[Read More…]

by 26/02/2018 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Need For Clean Elections

Need For Clean Elections

  If the representative you vote for is on the basis of his or her financial strength, then do not worry. You deserve a corrupt government – a government which will loot all your rights. Many honest and sincere candidates have been elected in this country in the past history. However, there is a drastic decline in the ratio of[Read More…]

by 25/02/2018 1 comment India
Net neutrality supporters hold signs in front of the White House. (Photo: Joseph Gruber/flickr/cc)

Next Stage Of Net Neutrality Conflict Begins

Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers On Thursday, the FCC’s net neutrality rule was published in the Federal Register. This was the official start of the next phase of the campaign to protect the open Internet as a common carrier with equal access for all and without prejudice based on content (net neutrality). There are multiple fronts of struggle to[Read More…]

by 25/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Conflating Zionism with Judaism, President of San Francisco State University Embraces Apartheid

Conflating Zionism with Judaism, President of San Francisco State University Embraces Apartheid

  Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is a movement that came into prominence, as Ali Abunimah documents in The Battle for Justice in Palestine: The Case for a Single Democratic State in Palestine (2014), after the collapse of the so-called “two-state solution” in response to the escalating problem of the partitioning of Palestine in 1948. As Columbia University MESAAS professor Joseph Massad wrote about[Read More…]

by 25/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Nurdle Hurdle

Nurdle Hurdle

  “Walt Disney never did justice to Chicken Little’s hurdles.” — Richard Martin Oxman There’s a NEW obstacle, a fresh difficulty you must face in your race to right the wrongs of society… if you’re a proactive concerned citizen dealing with any one of our many collective crises. And there are far too few activists engaged in meaningfully confronting the multiple challenges which[Read More…]

by 25/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Mary Wollstonecraft: A brief biographical note

Mary Wollstonecraft: A brief biographical note

              Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97), rightly credited as the first feminist philosopher, though the term feminism was not available in the discourse of that era, by the Enlightenment-inspired passion for reason,dared to rationally think and publically express her thought, a philosophical taboo for women at the time. By defying and challenging the prevalent social role models and stereotyped notions of[Read More…]

by 25/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
 The Threads Of Gloom

 The Threads Of Gloom

India has been home to a variety of arts and crafts which have won it a coveted place in the cultural heritage of the world. Handloom is one of the most exquisite textile traditions of India, and weaving was once the largest income generating activity in the country.  The weavers’ craft is threatened with extinction by power looms which offer[Read More…]

by 25/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Media On Trial

Media On Trial

  Much is said, and rightly so, about the excesses of the press. Despite press codes and press laws  ,partisan journalism continues to rule with an untrammeled pen.  The press, enjoys the widest freedom.? Here again, the main concern is not to infringe the letter of the law. There is no moral responsibility for deformation or disproportion. What sort of[Read More…]

by 25/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Madhu’s Post-mortem Report Reveals Horrific Lynching; Denied Water As He Lay Dying

Madhu’s Post-mortem Report Reveals Horrific Lynching; Denied Water As He Lay Dying

The post-mortem report of the Adivasi youth, Madhu who was beaten to death by a mob at Attappady on Thursday for allegedly stealing rice, had suffered injuries from head to toes, including his internal organs, reveals the tale of a horrific lynching . There are injuries all over the body, including on the back of the head. A rib was[Read More…]

by 25/02/2018 3 comments Human Rights
 Drones and Jets: The “Brazenness” Belongs to Israel

 Drones and Jets: The “Brazenness” Belongs to Israel

  “Iran brazenly violated Israel’s sovereignty,” stated Netanyahu on 10 February. “They dispatched an Iranian drone from Syrian territory into Israel.” In response to this alleged reconnaissance drone, which the Israeli military characterized as a “serious Iranian attack on Israeli territory,” Israel promptly bombed twelve Syrian and Iranian targets in Syria. A vagueness persists about the alleged drone. Iran stated the claim[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Article 35-A: Remnant of State-autonomy Rankling in the Heart of ultra-Hindu Nationalists

Article 35-A: Remnant of State-autonomy Rankling in the Heart of ultra-Hindu Nationalists

Any argument against Article 35-A of the Constitution of India in isolation from the political and social conditions in which partition of India, accession of JK with India took place and in which Orders and Notifications of 1927 and 1932 were issued by the then Ruler of JK Maharaja Hari Singh is patently bound to lead to wrong conclusions about[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
Uphold the Language of Dignity, Give Up Benevolence: TISS Hyderabad Campus as a Site of Higher Education and the Ongoing Students’ Protest

Uphold the Language of Dignity, Give Up Benevolence: TISS Hyderabad Campus as a Site of Higher Education and the Ongoing Students’ Protest

It has been three days the students at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and its various campuses located in different parts of the country are boycotting their classes as part of a larger protest. In Hyderabad, one of the off-centres of TISS, I have been witnessing this as the culmination of accumulated anger and frustration of the students.[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 1 comment India
For Madhu: In Memory

For Madhu: In Memory

Headline: Adivasi Youth Beaten to death in Kerala – An adivasi youth Madhu (27) was beaten to death by settlers in the Adivasi heartland of Attapady, Kerala, for allegedly stealing food. The murderers took selfies with the victim and posted on social media. Countercurrents.org — February 23, 2018 in Human Rights Ancient people Exult in the forest, the land, the[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 3 comments Arts/Literature
“All I Wish is for Palestine to be Free” — Freedom Fighter Ahed Tamimi

“All I Wish is for Palestine to be Free” — Freedom Fighter Ahed Tamimi

The Palestinian cause is not just for Palestinians, not even just for Arabs. The Palestinian cause is a humanitarian cause. What makes me happy is to see the humanitarians of the world stand with us in solidarity to free our land. — Ahed Tamimi, Empire Files: Abby Martin Meets Ahed Tamimi—Message From A Freedom Fighter. In 1976, the Palestinian villages[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 3 comments Palestine
A Palestinian boy sells lupin beans on a street in Gaza City. Ashraf Amra APA images

Making Ends Meet on Gaza’s streets

One morning in late January, Nabil al-Duhadar, 45, got up before 6 for dawn prayers and then immediately set to work. Al-Duhadar is a street vendor who sells turmos – a lupin bean snack often sold in market stalls. The snack takes preparation: the beans are soaked over 24 hours before being cooked for a couple of hours and then seasoned with[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Palestine
Bjørnar Moxnes’ Rødt party supports a full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. (Brage Aronsen)

Why BDS Movement Deserves A Nobel prize

When Norwegian lawmaker Bjørnar Moxnes nominated the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month, he called it an effort towards “stopping an ascendent, racist and right-wing politics sweeping too much of our world.” Moxnes heads Rødt (Red) Party, one of several relatively small groups on the left of Norway’s political spectrum. The party won[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Palestine
 Shanker Shambhu Qawwal, The Epitome of Indian Plurality

 Shanker Shambhu Qawwal, The Epitome of Indian Plurality

  Two snapshots of visual communication haunt me all the time. One is of the lynch mobs calling themselves as neo patriots and other the You Tube Videos of two Brahmin saints who were sunk deep into Islamic music and epitomised the syncretic cultural tradition of India. The first need no explanation as they are staple diet in the Indian[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 1 comment Communal Harmony
When A Woman Laughs

When A Woman Laughs

There are hundreds of ways to silence a woman
stare her down if she happens to laugh out loud
in public space especially in the presence of men
where she should be whispering at side lines
make your dismay quite apparent
if it fails to mortify her

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Interfaith Marriages And Human Progress

Interfaith Marriages And Human Progress

One of the means of measuring human progress is the declining influence of social identities in building human relationships. A society can only reach higher levels of progress only if it is able to break itself from the identities defined in terms of caste, religion, race, nationality, ethnicity, region etc. Unfortunately, in the 21st century for all the technological progress[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
Globalization’s Deadly Footprint

Globalization’s Deadly Footprint

That pollution is bad for our health will come as a surprise to no one. That pollution kills at least 9 million people every year might. This is 16 percent of all deaths worldwide – 3 times more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and 15 times more than all wars and other forms of violence. Air pollution alone is[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Globalisation, Counter Solutions
Arming Educators: Trump, Gun Violence And Schools

Arming Educators: Trump, Gun Violence And Schools

It had been in the works.  Instead of engaging in the traditional revulsion associated with a mass shooting, or even digesting the grief of outraged students and grieving parents, US President Donald Trump’s solution to guns violence was elementary.  To target the perpetrator, it was necessary to arm instructors, mount the barricades, and raise the stakes. His address of February[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 1 comment World
The Venezuelan “Petro” – Towards A New World Reserve Currency?

The Venezuelan “Petro” – Towards A New World Reserve Currency?

As this article goes to print, Globovision TV quotes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announcing the launch of a new cryptocurrency, the “Petro Oro”. It will be backed by precious metals. The launch of the new cryptomoney is scheduled for the next week. No details of the new offering are available at this point. “I do not want to rush things,[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 1 comment Counter Solutions
Cornucopian Renewable-Energy Claims Leave Poor Nations in the Dark

Cornucopian Renewable-Energy Claims Leave Poor Nations in the Dark

Stanford professor Mark Jacobson and his colleagues have written yet another paper purporting to show that 100 percent of energy demand can be fulfilled by wind, solar, and hydroelectric generation. This latest study, which comes in the form of a manuscript accepted but not yet published by the journal Renewable Energy, seeks to show how that goal can be met in 139 nations.[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Alternative Energy
Devious Ways the Predatory US Food Industry Has Us Paying More for Less

Devious Ways the Predatory US Food Industry Has Us Paying More for Less

When shopping at the supermarket, do you believe that your dollars don’t go as far as they used to? Guess what?-You are absolutely right! As we cruise through the supermarket here are some of the ways you may pay more for less. You’re at the ice cream section looking for your favorite ice cream container –there it is and it’s[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Photo by maHidoodi

Sad Sameness Source

  “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s in ability to sit quietly in a room alone.” — Blaise Pascal “I feel monotony and death to be almost the same.” — Charlotte Bronte Self-discipline and self-mastery can be considered — for all practical purposes — the sole basis of true freedom. True good — compassion and each of its lovely[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
If We Have To Survive

If We Have To Survive

The children will sleep tomorrow
Without the waves of the dead
Women will laugh tomorrow
Without bowing near the graves
If we hold our hands
For a new tomorrow
If we have to survive
To host the new flag of life.

by 24/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Towards True and Total Democracy: via changes in the electoral system, structure and functioning of Panchayat Raj

Towards True and Total Democracy: via changes in the electoral system, structure and functioning of Panchayat Raj

0.   Preface: Main thrust of this paper lies in justification of Proportional Representation (PR) for all segments of the society at all levels in all spheres of power on the basis of definition of democracy. In the political arena this (PR) can be achieved with the help of list-Proportional-Representation (list-PR) system of election. Initially the suggested changes will need to[Read More…]

by 23/02/2018 4 comments India
An Interview With Independent Journalist Andre Vltchek

An Interview With Independent Journalist Andre Vltchek

“Those who claim to be objective, like the BBC or The New York Times, are actually the most professional propagandists for the Western Empire.” This week I spoke with philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist Andre Vltchek. Vlchek has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Three of his latest books are his tribute to “The Great October Socialist Revolution” a revolutionary[Read More…]

by 23/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
The Woman Behind Gandhi – Kasturiba

The Woman Behind Gandhi – Kasturiba

  Life of Gandhi and his contribution to human empowerment has been discussed a lot but the sufferings of his wife – Kasturiba – has not been given the same importance. She bore all the burdeeen of the house as a typical traditional housewife and her contribution towards the family and society should not be under- estimated. On the 74[Read More…]

by 23/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Condemn The Arrest of Advocate Upendra Nayak By Odish Police

Condemn The Arrest of Advocate Upendra Nayak By Odish Police

The Indian Association of People’s Lawyers condemns the arrest of peoples’ advocate Upendra Nayak by the Paralakhemundi police, Odisha on the night of 20th February 2018. He was produced before the Mohana, Gajapati Judicial Magistrate on 21st February and subsequently sent to R. Udaygiri Jail. Shockingly, he has been arrested in ten criminal cases under serious charges like sedition, waging[Read More…]

by 23/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Adivasi Youth Beaten To Death In Kerala

Adivasi Youth Beaten To Death In Kerala

An adivasi youth Madhu (27) was beaten to death by settlers in the Adivasi heartland of Attapady, Kerala, for allegedly stealing food. The murderers took selfies with the victim and posted on social media. He was severely beaten on suspicion of stealing some rice from a provision store. After catching hold of him, the mob severely trashed him and then[Read More…]

Refuting Nuclear Winter Denial

Refuting Nuclear Winter Denial

We are all familiar with the climate change denial of Donald Trump and the US Republican Party. Motivated by the greed of giant fossil fuel corporations, climate change denial contradicts the research of the vast majority of scientists and endangers the futire of human civilization and the biosphere. There exists another very similar greed-motivated denial: It is the denial of[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 2 comments World
Junk Planet: Is Earth the Largest Garbage Dump in the Universe?

Junk Planet: Is Earth the Largest Garbage Dump in the Universe?

Is Earth the largest garbage dump in the Universe? I don’t know. But it’s a safe bet that Earth would be a contender were such a competition to be held. Let me explain why. To start, just listing the types of rubbish generated by humans or the locations into which each of these is dumped is a staggering task beyond[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
(Photo: Mr. Fish / Truthdig)

Trump Buoyed White Supremacists, Sparking Backlash Among Black Nationalist Groups

  President Trump’s first year in office proved to be just as racially divisive as his campaign — but even more consequential, says the Southern Poverty Law Center report released on Wednesday (Feb. 21). “President Trump in 2017 reflected what white supremacist groups want to see: a country where racism is sanctioned by the highest office, immigrants are given the[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
World Sees Florida’s 17 as a Tiny Backfire! Invading Armed Americans Kill Millions of Kids   

World Sees Florida’s 17 as a Tiny Backfire! Invading Armed Americans Kill Millions of Kids   

American college kids only asking for stricter gun laws, should instead ask Iraqis, Libyans, Afghanistani, Somali, and Yemeni what to do about Americans killing Americans, and they will answer, stop invading and killing our people; ask Vietnamese, Koreans, Laotians, Cambodians, Panamanians, Dominicans, Cubans & Grenadines, and they will advise to stop praising GIs sent to kill us as heroes even when they[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 2 comments Imperialism
More Than a Fight over Couscous: Why the Palestinian Narrative Must Be Embraced

More Than a Fight over Couscous: Why the Palestinian Narrative Must Be Embraced

As soon as Virgin Atlantic Airlines introduced a couscous-style salad “inspired by the flavours of Palestine”, a controversy ensued. Israel’s supporters ignited a social media storm and sent many complaints to the company, obliging the airline to remove the reference to Palestine. In the Zionist narrative, Palestine does not exist – nor is it allowed to exist – even if[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 1 comment Palestine
Hezbollah flag on Lebanon - Israeli border

Lebanon: Should It Be Devil, Deep Blue Sea… Or Russia?

Lebanon, as so often in the past, is facing mortal danger. Saudi Arabia is putting great pressure on the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, a powerful but controversial figure who holds dual nationality – Saudi and Lebanese. Riyadh expects Lebanon to play by its own rules, sidelining Hezbollah, ending Iranian influence in the country, and promoting Saudi business and political[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 1 comment World
Srinagar, The “SMART” Prison!

Srinagar, The “SMART” Prison!

Instead of making Srinagar, the city of the Sun into a “Smart” city, it has been turned into a virtual prison! Sometime back there was talk of declaring some cities all over the country as “Smart” cities for proper development on modern lines. Srinagar was also included in the list of these cities. Incidentally, Srinagar, the City of the Sunis[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 1 comment Kashmir
Understanding The Right Wingers

Understanding The Right Wingers

  ” Except in the desserts, at every place of human habitation, there is the left, the centre and the right. This will continue to be 10,000 years hence” Mao (22-4- 68) Last few years, the right wing atrocities have increased all over the world in general and India in particular. Many people belonging to subaltern communities suffered due to[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Urdu, What Did I Do?

Urdu, What Did I Do?

A language, any language, is not simply sounds and script characters which represent thoughts. A language is the soul of the people. It is the vehicle which connects their past to their present, their present to their dreams. It is the means by which one generation leaves its legacy for the next. In my view the single most significant event[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 4 comments Life/Philosophy
Scenario of Poor Elderly in Rural India

Scenario of Poor Elderly in Rural India

According to the World Bank Report(1994), poor elderly population of India usually faces the problems of earning from assets in old age, because of poor credit and insurance markets and also absence of  traditionally  extra familial welfare institutions. Traditionally, their offspring bears the burden of caring for the elderly parents. The family maintains basic safety and security of its members[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Photo Credit: Dsource.in

Himroo: A Dying Art

  A dignified aura of its rich past cloaks every corner of Aurangabad, a bustling city in Maharashtra. The crowning minarets that dot the city landscape and the villages around it, dissolve into the mist of history as the lavender of the evening glow envelopes the monuments from which writers extract magical romances for their books. Legends abound of the[Read More…]

by 22/02/2018 2 comments Life/Philosophy
 “Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 8: Struggle And Creation

 “Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 8: Struggle And Creation

Before 28th September 1991, very few people outside Chhattisgarh or Madhya Pradesh knew the name of Shankar GuhaNiyogi.  On this day, along with Niyogi’s name, people also learned the phrase, “sangharsh aur nirman”, i.e. “struggle and creation”. What is ‘struggle and creation’? In the context of a fight for rights, struggle is easy to understand – it’s striving. What about[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 3 comments Life/Philosophy

The Crisis of Social Democracy: From Norway to Europe

The crisis of social democracy is being debated throughout Europe. Several of the historically strong labour parties have almost been wiped out in elections while others seem unable to recover from defeat. In the last few years, a number of social democratic parties have ended up with only one-digit election results (Greece, Ireland, Iceland, The Netherlands, France), while others have[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 3 comments World
The School Shooting in Parkland, Florida: Why Do These Atrocities Keep Happening?

The School Shooting in Parkland, Florida: Why Do These Atrocities Keep Happening?

  On February 14, 2018, it happened again. Young people, full of potential, their futures before them, shot down… at school, supposedly a place for learning, growing, having fun, making friends, even falling in love. This time the murderous violence struck Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A former student wielding a semiautomatic rifle massacred 17 people—14 students,[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 1 comment World
Frontiersman of the Internet: John Perry Barlow

Frontiersman of the Internet: John Perry Barlow

He may have been a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, but a component of John Perry Barlow’s activism and corpus will forever be associated with a concept fast losing its gloss: internet freedom. “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” had a certain founding father’s imperative, and, along with that added enthusiasm, a degree of misunderstanding.  Like the mind expansion[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 1 comment World
The Coming Wars to End All Wars

The Coming Wars to End All Wars

  “The compulsive hatred of Putin by many who have almost zero idea about Putin or Russian history is disproportionate to any rational analysis, but not surprising. Trump and Putin are like weird doppelgangers in the liberal imagination.”                                      – John Steppling, “Trump,[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 8 comments World
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting of the UN Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, U.S., February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

The Palestinian People Are Not Fooled Anymore

  As a Palestinian, I am skeptical about Mahmoud Abbas’s address, billed by the press as “Abbas delivers rare address at UNSC meeting”, which calls for two states. Whereas I believe that BDS goals can be achieved through more than one political accommodation, including a two-state scenario in historic Palestine as a solution to its violent partition in 1948, I am skeptical about[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 1 comment Palestine
A “Salute” to Winston Churchill to “Properly” Dishonor him and His “Great War Time Leadership” and Expose His Hypocrisy and Lies

A “Salute” to Winston Churchill to “Properly” Dishonor him and His “Great War Time Leadership” and Expose His Hypocrisy and Lies

How can we anywhere on the face of this Earth today “properly” dishonor Winston “the faker” Churchill as no less than the late great Alexander Cockburn aptly referred to him?  Oh let us count the ways, and while we’re at it, list them and give some “lovely” details?  Hey why the Hell not?  Let’s do it. Bearing in mind, that[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 1 comment World
What Can Be Done About Ever Increasing Human Overpopulation?

What Can Be Done About Ever Increasing Human Overpopulation?

Picture two parents (couple A) living in a cave eons ago. They don’t have much of a sexual drive and so they only have two children. One of the two gets eaten by a tiger and the other drowns in a river flood. Couple B has a strong sexual drive. So they wind up having ten children. Two die from[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Lessons From Ed Herman’s Lifelong War Against Lies

Lessons From Ed Herman’s Lifelong War Against Lies

  The story goes that Einstein’s theory of relativity began with a simple question: What if a person could sit on a beam of light? A single inquiry led to an entire field of study, and perhaps the world’s most famous scientific breakthrough. The late Ed Herman’s questions were less playful. They were about war and death, lies and power[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Listening To The Unheard Voices Of India

Listening To The Unheard Voices Of India

(CNS): It is a common practice to interview celebrities and share their success stories. But the real grass roots heroines and heroes rarely get heard. So, for a change, let us listen to what our 13 year old Raveena has to say on girls’ education. It is high time our policy makers paid heed to the experiential knowledge of people[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
India Cold-Shoulders Trudeau To Mark Protest On Sikhs Assertion In Canada

India Cold-Shoulders Trudeau To Mark Protest On Sikhs Assertion In Canada

  Otherwise, it seems improbable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi known for his penchant for photogenic tele-shoots with visiting foreign dignitaries should miss the opportunity offered by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on a week-long visit to India from February 17 (2018). On his first visit to India, Mr Trudeau was received in the country by a junior agriculture minister.[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
This Is Why I Accepted Compensation: Radhika Vemula

This Is Why I Accepted Compensation: Radhika Vemula

Dear friends from the media, This is to inform you that, on the advice of my lawyer, I have decided to accept the cheque of Rs. 8 Lakh from the University of Hyderabad as compensation for the death of my son, Rohith Vemula who died after being harassed by Vice Chancellor Apparao Podile, BJP leaders Bandaru Dattatreya, Ramachander Rao and[Read More…]

by 21/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
Battle Line Blurs As Turkey Assaults Afrin

Battle Line Blurs As Turkey Assaults Afrin

  Turkey’s assault on Afrin for the last few weeks has made it difficult to define a battle line in the imperialism-intervened Syria. The people in Afrin are experiencing death and destruction as Turkey is bombing and bombarding Afrin, yet a part of Syria. The Kurdish people in Afrin are being driven to caves and basements. And, the sectarian rights-mongers[Read More…]

by 20/02/2018 2 comments World
Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide & Australia’s  Aboriginal Genocide Compared

Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide & Australia’s  Aboriginal Genocide Compared

  Coalition-ruled Australia is second only to Trump America as a supporter of  nuclear terrorist, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel. The 2 countries have a common history of invasion with dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous people that continues with an ongoing Palestinian Genocide and an ongoing Australian Aboriginal Genocide that are both marked by a circa 10 year gap in life[Read More…]

by 20/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Meddling for Empire: The CIA Comes Clean

Meddling for Empire: The CIA Comes Clean

“We’ve been doing this kind of thing [electoral meddling] since the CIA was created in 1947.” Loch K. Johnson, New York Times, Feb 17, 2018 Electoral meddling has become the gruel of US politics for months, and more servings are being promised in the wake of the indictments against 16 Russians and Russian entities dished out Robert Mueller last week. [Read More…]

by 20/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
 And the Angels Will Sing….

 And the Angels Will Sing….

  “Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels’ hierarchies?” — Rainer Maria Rilke The first time I was in Savannah, Georgia — which was around the time Ruby Bridges was having difficulties in New Orleans — my parents drove along the streets that James Oglethorpe laid out in squares when he founded the colony of Georgia[Read More…]

by 20/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
The Three Global Super-Powers

The Three Global Super-Powers

  There are currently three global super-powers, three nations that lead the world: China, Russia, and U.S. After World War II, until recently, the U.S. clearly dominated the world, not only culturally, with more influence over the world’s other cultures than any other single nation possessed, but also economically, with product-dominance throughout the world, and also militarily tied with the[Read More…]

by 20/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
Why Washington Struck Russian Contractors In Syria?

Why Washington Struck Russian Contractors In Syria?

On February 7, the US B-52 bombers and Apache helicopters struck a contingent of Syrian government troops and allied forces in Deir al-Zor that reportedly killed and wounded dozens of Russian military contractors working for the Russian private security firm, the Wagner group. In order to understand the reason why the US brazenly attacked the Russian contractors, we need to[Read More…]

by 20/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
The Question of Transnistria

The Question of Transnistria

In a world of close to 200 United Nations member states, hardly more than a dozen are “outcasts” from this union. According to constitutive – as opposed to declarative – theory, the question of statehood is a matter of context, as the recognition by another international community is more vital than the state is in itself a functioning community. States[Read More…]

by 20/02/2018 2 comments World
Release Anti-Displacement Activist Damodar Turi

Release Anti-Displacement Activist Damodar Turi

PUDR condemns the arrest of anti-displacement activist and founder member of “Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan” (VVJVA) Damodar Turi, on February 15, 2018 at Ranchi, an hour after the “Loktantra Bachao Manch” (Save Democracy Forum) organized meeting had ended. He was not shown a warrant for his arrest and was presented before the Giridih Court next day and sent to[Read More…]

Muslims Face Increasing Discrimination, State Surveillance Under Trump

Muslims Face Increasing Discrimination, State Surveillance Under Trump

US President Donald Trump received another setback last week when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, located in Richmond, Virginia, ruled against the latest version of his Muslim ban. In its ruling, the court stated that the ban is “unconstitutionally tainted with animus towards Islam” and that its central purpose is “to exclude Muslims from the United States.” Despite the[Read More…]

by 19/02/2018 1 comment World
The Ominous Shadows

The Ominous Shadows

It presages something cataclysmic is in the offing that has the potential of tearing apart the social and political fabric of the state beyond repair. It should send alarm bells ringing across the divide. Moreover, it calls for serious attention, far beyond a tweet or a post on the social media or a statement in the newspaper. In fact, the[Read More…]

by 19/02/2018 2 comments Kashmir
Julian Assange And His Doppelganger

Julian Assange And His Doppelganger

Walking along Hans Crescent every morning on my way to work, I stop briefly to look up at the balcony fronting the room which Julian Assange occupies in the Ecuadorian Embassy. I’ve been passing his place of residence for five years now and I’ve yet to catch a glimpse of him. What I do see though, are some of Her[Read More…]

by 19/02/2018 4 comments Human Rights
The Price of the Earth

The Price of the Earth

“Dear Caesar, Keep burning, raping and killing, but please, please spare us your obscene poetry and ugly music“(From Seneca’s last letter to Nero) Astrophysicist Greg Laughlin came up with a figure of €3000 trillion for the worth of planet Earth, given its breathable atmosphere—a shield from cosmic radiation. A close estimate is by Greg Laughlinas as US$5000 trillion. By contrast[Read More…]

by 19/02/2018 1 comment Climate Change
The Caring Profession: Peacekeeping, Blue Helmets And Sexual Abuse

The Caring Profession: Peacekeeping, Blue Helmets And Sexual Abuse

It’s the sort of thing to turn many an otherwise calm stomach, but the revelations that UN peace keeping staff have been involved in sexual assault has done its fair share of upsetting.  Legislators in the United States, many sceptical of the body to begin with, are taking note.  Such revelations draw out the worst of missions supposedly altruistic in[Read More…]

by 19/02/2018 1 comment World
Venal Waste

Venal Waste

“What if someone offered you a job which paid a million bucks, but you knew it would kill a million people? How about if it meant the end to a hundred thousand, or, say, ten thousand… or a thousand? Would you take the job?” — Question posed by Alex Gibney to the author A new Netflix series kicks off with[Read More…]

by 19/02/2018 1 comment Arts/Literature
Time to Honor Lucy Parsons for Black History Month

Time to Honor Lucy Parsons for Black History Month

“We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.” — Martin Luther King Jr. “The world is my country.” — Thomas Paine. Why was Lucy Eldina Gonzales Parsons whitewashed, and that’s the right word for it, for so long out of US history and black history as well with all her high[Read More…]

by 19/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
“(B)lack Power Is Not The Question; Revolution Is. It Is Only The Fist That Is Black.”

“(B)lack Power Is Not The Question; Revolution Is. It Is Only The Fist That Is Black.”

As the Black Panther Party was struggling to gain a positive consensus, and political will of the oppressed masses all over the globe in later half of 1960s, and their organizational programme, and functioning was sending shivers down the spine of many white-supremacist organization like Ku Klux Klan as one of them. The fourth pillar of the democracy that is,[Read More…]

by 19/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Vigil Held for Samjhauta Victims in Canada

Vigil Held for Samjhauta Victims in Canada

Despite freezing cold and wind, dedicated community activists showed up at the vigil organized in memory of the Samjhauta blast victims in Surrey on Sunday evening. On February 18, 2007 a bomb ripped through the Samjhauta rail express killing 68 people, mostly Pakistani Muslims. The train was started to help the families separated by the Indo Pak division in 1947[Read More…]

by 19/02/2018 2 comments Human Rights
Free Chandrashekhar ‘Azad’

Free Chandrashekhar ‘Azad’

We, the undersigned citizens and civil society organisations of Mumbai, express our solidarity with the members of Bhim Army who have been working for the rights of Dalits in Sahranpur, Uttar Pradesh for the last two years. They have been advocating education for Dalits and running successful evening schools for them, besides raising a voice against atrocities. Apart from empowering[Read More…]

by 19/02/2018 2 comments Human Rights
West Asia In Flux: Connecting The Dots

West Asia In Flux: Connecting The Dots

  A series of events linked to West Asia in the last nine months has brought to the surface the under-currents and cross-currents in the region’s perennial struggle between occupation and hegemony, on the one hand, and resistance and liberation, on the other. It is crucial to understand how these events are related to one another, to connect the dots,[Read More…]

by 18/02/2018 2 comments World
Population Growth — A Problem or Not?

Population Growth — A Problem or Not?

According to the author Garrett Hardin, there is “No Global Population Problem,” UCSB. The Humanist, July/August 1989. There is No Global Population Problem, by Garrett Hardin – The … An excerpt: “Almost two hundred years have passed since Malthus disturbed the world’s slumber with his celebrated Essay on Population. Today, the world has more than five times as many people[Read More…]

by 18/02/2018 6 comments World
Black Panther vs. Black Panthers

Black Panther vs. Black Panthers

  “A few of the major textbooks don’t even mention the Black Panthers, while most give the organization only a sentence or two. Even the small number that do devote a few paragraphs to the party, give little context for their actions and distort their ideology. “ — Adam Sanchez and Jesse Hagopian of the Zinn Education Project Black Panther, its[Read More…]

by 18/02/2018 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Making Mugs of Voters: Mueller’s Russia Indictments

Making Mugs of Voters: Mueller’s Russia Indictments

Tagged to the Trump presidency like an insistent limpet, the investigation into Russian interference in the US elections of 2016 provides constant fodder for the unimaginative political animals in the United States. But any diet that remains unvaried is bound to induce illness or nutritional deficiency.  Variety is strength. US politics, and its political culture, distinctly lacks nutritional health.  Estranged,[Read More…]

by 18/02/2018 1 comment World
Facebook And Palestinian Revolt Against The Jewish State

Facebook And Palestinian Revolt Against The Jewish State

  Facebook is under pressure to chill or suppress speech that delegitimizes theJewish state in the context of the Palestinian national liberation movementand international solidarity for Palestinians. At the same time, speech that delegitimizes Palestinians as a people with fundamental human rights is freely promoted on Facebook, not least by Israeli and U.S. officials themselves. The battle for hearts and minds over Palestine has long been[Read More…]

by 18/02/2018 2 comments Palestine
Time to ‘Militarise Hindus, Hinduise Nation’

Time to ‘Militarise Hindus, Hinduise Nation’

Would it be possible to imagine that leader of any organisation openly declaring that her/his people/activists have the ability to prepare an “army” in three days , can be deployed on the front within three days, questions the ability of the security forces for quick operations, and does not face any legal hassles ? A lesser mortal would have been[Read More…]

by 18/02/2018 2 comments Communal Harmony
PNB Saga Continues- The Enormity of Fraudulence

PNB Saga Continues- The Enormity of Fraudulence

  Heartiest Congratulations to the Govt of India. They have allowed the second billionaire who has done the biggest fraud of India to leave the country. Where are those who are charged with the responsibility of keeping an eye on the financial institutions in the country, like the revenue intelligence wings in Banks, RBI, ED and others? Why the Government[Read More…]

by 18/02/2018 2 comments India
Colombia: If We Do Not Get Engaged With Politics …

Colombia: If We Do Not Get Engaged With Politics …

  Renewed initiative for a peaceful and decent Colombia is facing fatal hurdles as assassinations and assaults are being unleashed against the Revolutionary Alternative Force of the Common (Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común, acronym FARC), the political party formed by the former FARC leaders and activists. Blood of progressive activists is being spilled by the ultra-rightist/conservative forces in the land[Read More…]

by 18/02/2018 2 comments World
 Sickening Relations: The Royal Society and the GMO-Agrochemical Sector

 Sickening Relations: The Royal Society and the GMO-Agrochemical Sector

The Royal Society in the UK is a self-governing fellowship of distinguished scientists. Its purpose is reflected in its founding charters of the 1660s: to recognise, promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity. Its motto, nullius in verba, is taken to mean ‘take nobody’s word for it’. It is[Read More…]

On Jettisoning Failed Leaders And Mass Shootings In The US

On Jettisoning Failed Leaders And Mass Shootings In The US

The scene is the House of Commons; the date May 7, 1940.  A simple motion to adjourn for the ten-day Whitsun recess is of little concern to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who has a comfortable 213 seat majority.  Then things take a turn.  A plan approved by the first First Lord pf the Admiralty Winston Churchill to land troops in[Read More…]

by 17/02/2018 1 comment World
 The Gang and  Homeless College: Miracle in the Works

 The Gang and  Homeless College: Miracle in the Works

Dedicated to my new community… with the intention of providing a model for many communities across the globe. One way I can contribute to reducing gang violence, securing shelter for the homeless and/or helping local citizens to provide better for themselves is to open a Free Gang and Homeless College that would include tutoring and other socially-conscious services gratis. I could secure[Read More…]

by 17/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Providing Protection

Providing Protection

My daughter is a guidance counselor, a position like being a school psychologist. She, all by herself, handles a school with 350 children in her role. It is a lot of heavy work with such a huge load of children to which to attend. So you streamline and teach classes to groups and only attend to the individuals worst in[Read More…]

by 17/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Winds of Change in Sri Lanka:Rajapakshe’s Voodoo in Local Election And Foreign Factors in Sri Lankan Politics

Winds of Change in Sri Lanka:Rajapakshe’s Voodoo in Local Election And Foreign Factors in Sri Lankan Politics

Co-Written by Punsara Amarasinghe & Eshan Jayawardane The enigmatic nature    of Sri Lanka was once again manifested by overall results of the recently held local election. The landslide victory marked by Former president Mahinda Rajapakshe’s newly established political party “People’s Front”(Podu Jana Peramuna) has disorientated the two main political parties of the island. In fact the local election was delayed[Read More…]

by 17/02/2018 1 comment South Asia
Why Dalit Women Die Young?

Why Dalit Women Die Young?

  While women in general face exploitation socially and economically, some of them face ‘ more’ exploitation than others. A UN report released late Wednesday night says that the average dalit women dies 14.6 years younger than women of upper castes. The risk of exposure to mortality of dalit women increases due to poor sanitation and health care ( India[Read More…]

by 17/02/2018 2 comments Annihilate Caste
Infantilization And Degeneration of the Politics in the Recent Times

Infantilization And Degeneration of the Politics in the Recent Times

  Across the world, many democracies are in crisis and the civilization is crumbling. The crisis erupts because there is an impoverishment of political life where intolerance, greed, ignorance and rageare growing recklessly. The vibrancy of the democracies is diminishing as the public sphere of informed democratic dialogue is shrinking. Blatant lies, infantile emotionalism, absolute disrespect, open display of religious[Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Ramaphosa Installed as South African President

Ramaphosa Installed as South African President

Former trade union boss Cyril Ramaphosa has been sworn in as president of South Africa following an intense battle within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) which led to the ousting of Jacob Zuma who had held the presidency since 2009. The move against Zuma was set in motion last December when Ramaphosa won a closely fought struggle within the[Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 4 comments World
The Incarceration of Tariq Ramadan: A Travesty of Justice

The Incarceration of Tariq Ramadan: A Travesty of Justice

The unjust incarceration of Dr Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, demeans and disgraces the French legal system. Tariq has been detained in a solitary cell in the high security wing of Paris’s Fleury-Merogis prison since the 2nd of February 2018. It is alleged that he raped two women in Lyon and Paris in 2009 and[Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 1 comment World
Condemn The Arrest of Damodar Turi by Jharkhand Police

Condemn The Arrest of Damodar Turi by Jharkhand Police

Persecuted Prisoners’ Solidarity Committee (PPSC) condemns the continued repression on activists and groups associated with people’s struggles in Jharkhand by the police and administration. Damodar Turi, a member of the Central Committee of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (VVJVA), was arrested in the evening on 15th February 2018 from Ranchi. He was arrested after he walked out of a public[Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Human Nature And Human Destiny

Human Nature And Human Destiny

When he was between the ages of 11 and 16, Paul Gauguin attended a Catholic boarding school in France. At the school, the Bishop of Orléalns himself taught the class in liturgy. The bishop had devised a catechism in which three main questions were asked: “Where does humanity come from? Where is it going? How do we proceed?” It is[Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Fourth Court of Appeal Declares Trump’s ‘Muslim Ban 3.0’ Unconstitutional

Fourth Court of Appeal Declares Trump’s ‘Muslim Ban 3.0’ Unconstitutional

  A panel of 13 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., Thursday (Feb. 15) declared Trump’s Muslim ban (3.0) illegal and unconstitutional. The appeals court in International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump stayed its decision pending resolution of a related case that is already at the U.S. Supreme Court. That case, Trump[Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 1 comment World
The Bucket of Blood Beyond Parkland

The Bucket of Blood Beyond Parkland

“Sixty-eight percent of U.S. citizens believe that ‘better mental health screening’ would help to reduce the number of school shootings, but one has to ask what’s considered mentally healthy in our spiritually-anemic, sick society.” — Richard Martin Oxman Relationships and loyalties within a family are the strongest and most important ones, say most people. [Pause.] Yes, blood is thicker than[Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 1 comment World
 By Hook or By Crook….

 By Hook or By Crook….

“Each chapter I read made me more and more angry.” – Dr. Helen Caldicott, international leader of anti-nuclear and environmental movements, making reference to a book recommended below The new Cold War is different from the original one. Ideological conflict no longer pits Moscow against today’s enlarged “West”… since Russia’s elite unashamedly embraced capitalism after 1991. The Kremlin has ceased to [Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
[Photo:  North Korean cheerleaders wave unification flags during Team Korea's ice hockey game against Sweden at the Gwandong Ice Hockey Center in Gangneung, Monday. / Yonhap, Korean Times http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/sports/2018/02/702_244132.html ]

Olympic Games Make US Regime Paranoid and Unpredictable

Despite all the efforts of a paranoid and unpredictable US regime, the Koreans are making peace not war during the 2018 Winter Olympics. The US is furious and pulling out all the stops to tarnish the Games, and it is trying to put South Korea back on the US colonial leash. South Korea’s democratically elected peace-president Moon Jae-in is showing[Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
Aruna and Bunker Roy.

The Marquee Harbingers Of India’s Development Spring

Historians will tell you that an explosion of creativity occurs the moment the world starts complaining that there is nothing left to invent or that the search for solutions to complex problems has come to an end. This explosion is fate’s way of reminding us that there is always something just over the horizon of knowledge. Social entrepreneurs are now[Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Prominent Experts, Activists Call For Improving Public Transport

Prominent Experts, Activists Call For Improving Public Transport

  This luxury 24 storey high rise building represents an assault on the heart of Mumbai. This is in Mahim geographically the heart of the metropolis as Mahim connects the island city with the suburbs. The skyscraper is an eyesore amidst low-rise housing but more than that it has come up on the bus depot of the BEST Undertaking .[Read More…]

by 16/02/2018 2 comments Counter Solutions
Seventeen Killed in Mass Shooting at Florida High School

Seventeen Killed in Mass Shooting at Florida High School

Seventeen people were killed and at least 14 more wounded Wednesday afternoon in the latest horrific school shooting in the United States. The tragedy unfolded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, located some 30 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale, in Broward County. According to reports, a former student started shooting from outside and then entered the school[Read More…]

by 15/02/2018 3 comments World
Custodial Murder Of A Dalit Youth In Tamil Nadu

Custodial Murder Of A Dalit Youth In Tamil Nadu

Poor Dalits take so little from Society, But contribute so much to its ‘Development’ And pay such a huge price in the Process! Suresh @ MGR S/o Ganapathi, a Dalit youth from Gandhi Nagar, Orikkai, Kancheepuram is the latest victim of custodial murder. Suresh, who is around 33 years of age, is a lorry driver by profession. On 12th Feb.[Read More…]

by 15/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
“Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 7:  Bhilai Workers Movement

“Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 7:  Bhilai Workers Movement

Asim Das, Indradeb Choudhury, Kishori Choudhury, Kumar Verma, K. N. Pradip Kutty, Keshav Prasad Gupta, Joga Jadav, Dhirpal Sinha, Puranik Pal, Prem Narayan, Madhukar Choudhury, Manoharan Verma, Ramkripal Misra, Ramajna Chauhan, Lashman Verma, Hiru Ram   “The butchers that murdered you will be judged in the tribunal of today. We will not let the killers be the arbiters of justice[Read More…]

by 15/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Assange, Judge Arbuthnot and the Arrest Warrant

Assange, Judge Arbuthnot and the Arrest Warrant

Justice is an elastic concept.  Like other terms in law, it has room to expand and contract.  But one weakness burdens legal strictures that supposedly have an objective reality to them: power.  Power brutish, power as a spectral force, and power arbitrarily exercised. Any reading of Julian Assange’s case must be, to that end, understood as a dynamic less of[Read More…]

by 15/02/2018 1 comment World
The US Need “Eureka!” Moments Re: ‘Vetting’; ‘Displacement’; ‘Discernment’; ‘Integration’!

The US Need “Eureka!” Moments Re: ‘Vetting’; ‘Displacement’; ‘Discernment’; ‘Integration’!

  “Eureka! Eureka! (I have found it!)”      –Archimedes “Having played with fire, one knows inner forms, inner function.”      -–Kijima Hajime Let’s first debunk the “fake news”! Famed scientist and mathematician, Archimedes, probably did not cry out “Eureka! Eureka!” (Greek for “I have found it!”) when he sat in a public bath in Syracuse, Sicily, discovering one of his—and[Read More…]

by 15/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Representation Image/ Photo by Derek Mindler

 How Falling Down Can Lead to Waking Up: Learning from Loss and Pain

  Sonoma County, California: The organic Kokopelli Farm has been my home, as well as my main work, identity, and love, for the last two-dozen years. Then I fell into a badger hole in the ground, covered by grass, on Jan. 15 this year. I crawled painfully uphill back into the house, as if I were a baby. This unwelcome[Read More…]

by 15/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
More About Dealing With Trauma

More About Dealing With Trauma

Last night, my last dream had me sitting all of a sudden bolt upright in bed. It was of an event that happened recently (this week) in New England, USA concerning a parent murdering his child and committing suicide. Derry, NH, father killed himself and 6-year-old son by carbon monoxide poisoning It is happening all of the time, too, since[Read More…]

by 15/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Possibility of Indo-Pak War?

Possibility of Indo-Pak War?

The fast deteriorating security situation between India and Pakistan has created a sinister possibility of a destructive conflict unless big powers step in to diffuse the situation The recent attack on Sujwan Army camp in Jammu coupled with the shelling and firing on the border is an indicator of a fast deteriorating security situation between India and Pakistan. In fact,[Read More…]

by 15/02/2018 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Citizens Of J&K Jointly Urge India And Pakistan To End Hostilities

Citizens Of J&K Jointly Urge India And Pakistan To End Hostilities

In a joint calling attention petition, over 130 eminent citizens of the divided State of Jammu and Kashmir urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to resume ceasefire along the Line of Control and begin the process of dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue by including all the people of Jammu and Kashmir. This[Read More…]

by 15/02/2018 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Remembering Hiagam Massacre!

Remembering Hiagam Massacre!

 “We know about every massacre that has taken place close to the present, but the ones in the distant past are like trees falling in the forest with no one to hear them.”Steven Pinker. Hiagam a small hamlet, barely 20 kilometres from the District Headquarters Baramulla,  is world famous for the wetland Rakh-i-Hiagam . This village still struggles  with the[Read More…]

by 15/02/2018 1 comment Kashmir
Why Does RSS Want To Take Up The Role Of The Army?

Why Does RSS Want To Take Up The Role Of The Army?

The Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s chief Mr.Mohan Bhagwat says that the RSS as a military network (of the Brahminic forces) can move to the borders to protect the nation within three days while the Indian Army ( multicultural, multi-caste and secular force) will take six months. This is not only dangerous statement of the ISIS kind, but it has serious life[Read More…]

by 14/02/2018 1 comment India
Agriculture and Autonomy in the Middle East

Agriculture and Autonomy in the Middle East

In Rojava, a region in Syria also known as North Kurdistan, a groundbreaking experiment in communal living, social justice, and ecological vitality is taking place. Devastated by civil war, Syria is a place where a cessation of hostilities often seems like the most that can be hoped for. But Rojava has set its sights much higher. What started as a[Read More…]

by 14/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
The Boomerang Effect: How Netanyahu Made Israel an American Issue, and Lost

The Boomerang Effect: How Netanyahu Made Israel an American Issue, and Lost

Despite massive sums of money spent to channel public opinion in the United States in favor of Israel, unmistakable trends in opinion polls are attesting to the changing dynamics of Israel’s support among ordinary Americans. Not only is Israel losing its support and overall appeal among large sections of American society, but among young American Jews, as well – a[Read More…]

by 14/02/2018 1 comment World
 Domestic Violence: A Heinous Human Rights Violation in Private Space

 Domestic Violence: A Heinous Human Rights Violation in Private Space

Co-Written By Ashish Kumar Singh and Shirin Shabana Khan Domestic violence in simple terms can be defined as any kind of abusive behavior by the husband or male partner or their relatives (includes male and female relatives). It need not be physical abuse. It could also be verbal, emotional, sexual or economic abuse. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence[Read More…]

by 14/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
Regime Change Fails: Is A Military Coup or Invasion Of Venezuela Next?

Regime Change Fails: Is A Military Coup or Invasion Of Venezuela Next?

Co-Written By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Speaking at his alma mater, the University of Texas, on February 1, Secretary of State Tillerson suggested a potential military coup in Venezuela.  Tillerson then visited allied Latin American countries urging regime change and more economic sanctions on Venezuela. Tillerson is considering banning the processing or sale of Venezuelan oil in the United States and is[Read More…]

by 14/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Rex Tillerson And Threat Of A Coup In Venezuela

Rex Tillerson And Threat Of A Coup In Venezuela

 US Sec. of State Tillirson has suggested that the military of Venezuela might, as many militaries in Latin America have done in the past, and overthrow the elected government and President Maduro. Time will soon pass for such murderous gangster talk from a high US official. USA is losing economic hegemony.  This week, the present US Secretary of State, Rex[Read More…]

by 14/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
Al-Baghdadi Incapacitated In Russian Airstrike

Al-Baghdadi Incapacitated In Russian Airstrike

In June last year, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that according to information, the leader of the Islamic State Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi had reportedly been killed as a result of airstrikes conducted by the Russian aircrafts on a southern suburb of Raqqa on May 28. Similarly, Rami Abdul Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) told Reuters [1][Read More…]

by 14/02/2018 1 comment World
Dostoevsky Does Dissidents: Treason Of The Soul

Dostoevsky Does Dissidents: Treason Of The Soul

“Activists would benefit immeasurably by reading Dostoevsky.”  — Howard Zinn While U.S. citizens — “Americans” — were engaging in the unnecessary bloody Civil War and its horrific aftermath, Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was producing three of his greatest novels and two  of his best novellas more than half a world away. Life didn’t meet Dostoevsky half way, though. During the period[Read More…]

by 14/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Below The Tip Of The Oxfam Iceberg: The Authentic Charitable Gesture

Below The Tip Of The Oxfam Iceberg: The Authentic Charitable Gesture

  At the turn of the new millennium, a new phenomenon has emerged: conservatives who just decades before had rejected the expanding human rights culture began to embrace human rights in order to advance their own political goals. This book accounts for how human rights—generally conceived as a counterhegemonic instrument for righting historical injustices—are being deployed to subjugate the weak[Read More…]

by 14/02/2018 1 comment World
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome ( SIDS ) Is A Phenomenon That Is Worldwide And Heart-Breaking

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome ( SIDS ) Is A Phenomenon That Is Worldwide And Heart-Breaking

“ We do not put new-born babies to sleep on their tummies,” said the lady in the day care centre we had visited in the US. “We rule out the possibility of obstruction of the upper airways and suffocation due to a roll up of the sheet in the crib. Plus today it’s a mandatory rule enforced by the government.”[Read More…]

Resist Bigotry, Recover Solidarity: Say No To “Hindus for Trump”

Resist Bigotry, Recover Solidarity: Say No To “Hindus for Trump”

 We, the members of India Civil Watch (ICW) reject unequivocally the rank opportunism of “Hindus for Trump” (henceforth HFT) that leads them to offer to pay for President Trump’s proposed wall at the Mexican border as long as it will facilitate their own presumed ability to stay in the U.S. The enthusiastic support of HFT’s members – immigrants or children[Read More…]

by 14/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Transhumanism, A Final Corporate Takeover of Humanity

Transhumanism, A Final Corporate Takeover of Humanity

Transhumanism is knocking at the door. Dubbed as Humanity+ or H+, the idea to radically revolutionize humanity has emerged in the last decades as a global intellectual movement. With a slogan of melding humans with the machine, it aims to radically alter human nature by means of technological advancement. Proponents of transhumanism envision a human that goes beyond its current[Read More…]

by 13/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The UK’s Hidden Hand In Julian Assange’s Detention

The UK’s Hidden Hand In Julian Assange’s Detention

  Nazareth: It now emerges that the last four years of Julian Assange’s effective imprisonment in the Ecuadorean embassy in London have been entirely unnecessary. In fact, they depended on a legal charade. Behind the scenes, Sweden wanted to drop the extradition case against Assange back in 2013. Why was this not made public? Because Britain persuaded Sweden to pretend[Read More…]

by 13/02/2018 1 comment World
Heritage & West Connex Meet Head-On in Sydney’s Suburbs

Rose Bay: Is It Another Barangaroo Point or West Connex of The Future?

  Andrew Taylor, a columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald, recently raised some pressing issues about out-of-control development in Sydney’s suburbs that should at once give everyone in the modern world cause to pause and reflect upon, because the problem of traffic gridlock and lack of parking could be said to be the flash point Achilles Heels of modern society’s[Read More…]

by 13/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Handling Trauma

Handling Trauma

  The older that you become — the more trauma that you will have experienced in life. It’s a given fact of life. Trauma can start very young. It did for the thousands of orphans, little children whose parents and other relatives were killed in wars. The loved ones died without being combatants, but were collateral damage as civilians. It[Read More…]

by 13/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Fearing Peace: Olympic Diplomacy In Action

Fearing Peace: Olympic Diplomacy In Action

Mike Pence was a man with a mission.  At stages through the opening parts of the Winter Olympics in South Korea, he looked like a man on a mission.  With diplomatic gestures flowering all around with weedy vigour in Pyeonchang, he was intent on fighting them.  The gardener of empire had his implements at the ready. The US Vice-President had[Read More…]

by 13/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Peace Theme At Winter Olympics Contrasts Domestic Violence In Trump White House

Peace Theme At Winter Olympics Contrasts Domestic Violence In Trump White House

  It is the optimism of the young that is infectious, drowning out the cynicism of the old:  the smiling faces, their enthusiasm, their energy, their sheer delight in being there.  They are the spirit of the Olympics, drawing in the record audiences for the opening ceremonies and for the events. The Winter Olympics of 2018 opened today in South[Read More…]

by 13/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
 The Washington Post’s Shoddy Defense of the Russiagate Investigation

 The Washington Post’s Shoddy Defense of the Russiagate Investigation

  An editorial in the February 2nd Washington Post headlined “The Nunes memo shows the opposite of what Trump hoped it would prove”, and its first argument was that “the memo reveals that there were preexisting [i.e., prior to the FBI’s investigation into the DNC’s infamous Steele dossier, which even Steele himself acknowledged was probably 10% to 30% false] grounds[Read More…]

by 13/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
How Herman Can Help With Horizons

How Herman Can Help With Horizons

“Gonna raise me an army, some tough sons of bitches I’ll recruit my army from the orphanages” — from Bob Dylan’s Thunder on the Mountain “All trustworthy souls are orphans.” — Herman Melville “The whole purpose of life is to learn, teach and love,” Douglas Schifter wrote in his final Facebook post. In addition to driving for four decades, he[Read More…]

by 13/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Why We Are Suspicious!

Why We Are Suspicious!

                  Once the synonym of paradise, Kashmir is no longer so. Now often described as the valley of grief and mourning, the Kashmir hardly witnesses a single day of respite from bloodshed. Grief-struck population especially youth yearn to have peaceful survival. To escape the situation and environment, where irrespective of their age, social status, and occupation etc their life is[Read More…]

by 13/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
From Kanaiyah Kumar To Jignesh Mewani…

From Kanaiyah Kumar To Jignesh Mewani…

Any claim of justice is incomplete, unless it doesn’t reconcile the dimension of recognition and redistribution. Dalit and left politics need to grasp this broader zone of injustice which is constitutive of both cultural misrecognition and economic exploitation. 2014 general election was an important juncture in the life of Indian democracy for the following reasons- no one had imagined that[Read More…]

by 13/02/2018 1 comment India
Mounting Nuclear Portents While Rome Burns

Mounting Nuclear Portents While Rome Burns

It has been said that in the nuclear age war is obsoleteii, but around the world tribalism and with it the drums of war are on the rise, including talk of “usable” nuclear weapons. The atmosphere is reminiscent of pre-WWII suppression of the press the judiciary and academia, extreme nationalism leads to persecution of minorities and ultimately genocide, with echoes[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
 Implications of Downing the Israeli Fighter Plane

 Implications of Downing the Israeli Fighter Plane

  Israel had gained air space superiority in the Middle East after it destroyed the Egyptian air force during the 1967 6-days Israeli aggression war against it neighbors. Since then, the Arab weakness in the air force arena had emboldened Israel to use its air force power intensively and unhindered, up till now, to inflict damages to its Arab neighbors[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 1 comment World
Pic credit: www.enincon.com

How Donald Trump Plans to Enlist Fossil Fuels in the Struggle for Global Dominance 

  The new U.S. energy policy of the Trump era is, in some ways, the oldest energy policy on Earth. Every great power has sought to mobilize the energy resources at its command, whether those be slaves, wind-power, coal, or oil, to further its hegemonic ambitions. What makes the Trumpian variant — the unfettered exploitation of America’s fossil-fuel reserves — unique[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Resource Crisis, Imperialism
Saudi King Salman presents President Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace, Saturday, May 20, 2017, in Riyadh. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Muslim World Towards Unthinkable Clash of Reason

“Muslims are numerous but powerless. Divisions among Muslims, especially between Sunni and Shiites, have consigned the Muslim Middle East to almost a century of Western control….Muslim disunity has made it possible for Israel to dispossess the Palestinians, for the U.S. to invade Iraq, and for the U.S. to rule much of the region…”(Paul Craig Roberts, “Muslims are their own Worst[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
Rise of Right Wing Nationalism Before Refugee Crisis In Europe And Human Rights Obligations of European Union

Rise of Right Wing Nationalism Before Refugee Crisis In Europe And Human Rights Obligations of European Union

Co-Written by Punsara Amarasinghe & Anastasia Glazova The roots of the refugee problem Europe currently facing has derived from aged long socio political disparities of people and its present condition is an offshoot of  the same serious of problems. Nevertheless the current hullabaloo in European Union on the influx of large number of asylum seekers was mainly emerged after the[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
An Exodus of Jews From Palestine Is Inevitable

An Exodus of Jews From Palestine Is Inevitable

  Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has come a long way in advocating for Palestinian rights. They now fully embrace the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, seeing it as the most effective method to effect change. JVP is on Israel’s BDS Ban List and is described by another Jewish group in the US (the Anti-Defamation League — ADL) as “the largest[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 1 comment Palestine
Darkhuin cinema

Erasing Arab Identity: Iran Demolishes More Historical Sites In Ahwaz

  In January 2018, the Iranian regime ordered the demolition of another cherished artefact of Ahwazi heritage in the occupied Arab region of Ahwaz. Ahwazi activists reportedthat regime authorities ignored petitions submitted by local residents pleading with them not to destroy the 98-year-old cinema in Dar Khwain city to the west of the regional capital, with regime security forces, assisted[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Nothing’s Changed For Me

Nothing’s Changed For Me

Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose.  Any minute now I’m expecting all hell to break loose. Troy was in trouble in 2011. Innocent, but on Death Row… so we circulated a petition. Lots of heartbeats spent, but it was worth all the time and energy and money that went into gathering those signatures. For we got[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
 Without Shakespeare In The Social Sphere….

 Without Shakespeare In The Social Sphere….

“We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought.” — Oliver Sacks According to Talk Talk Mobile (London), the percentage of Britons aged 18 to 25 who find it easier to express themselves in emoji than in words is 72. Let’s say that they’re off by[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
If Teachers Taught The Truth….

If Teachers Taught The Truth….

The haunting works made by the painter Ahmed Alsoudani are born out of extreme states of violence. The artist grew up in Baghdad, Iraq, during the Iran-Iraq War and the First Gulf War, but he was forced to leave the country as a teenager after vandalizing a mural depicting Saddam Hussein. His paintings, drawings and prints are laden with elements[Read More…]

Getting Above Racial And Religious Profiling

Getting Above Racial And Religious Profiling

  I have a friend in India. His father never made much money, although he was an MD, who worked around ten hours a day for five or six days a week in his profession. Now, why is that? Why paltry wages? Often the people, who came to him, were financially poor. They could not pay for his medical services,[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
"WAKE UP INDIA" a Protest Rally against the Violence & oppression on Minorities, Churches, Nun and Christians organize by Christian reform united people association along with Other Organizations, Churches and Institutions at Azad Maidan on Friday. Express photo by Prashant Nadkar, Mumbai, 27/03/2015

Transformation of Caste/Religious Minorities into ‘Composite Majority’ to Counter Majoritarianism in India

Nature of Majority Though every nation in the world is multi-religious and multi-cultural, in every nation, at least, there is one majority community that is based on religion, language, ethnicity, race and language. However, in the long historical process, it does not remain as it is because the supposed cultural and religious singularity is a myth. In large geographical landscape,[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
Separation Of Religion From State Still A Necessity

Separation Of Religion From State Still A Necessity

The role of religion in politics is as contentious today as it was about hundreds of years ago. The question still haunts the civilization today as it used to once upon a time. The west, for its part, has been successful in separating religion from politics or the church from politics, to which they still adhere amid the wave of[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 1 comment South Asia
Importance of Community Radio

Importance of Community Radio

German playwright and author Bertolt Brecht wrote “The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication. Radio is one sided when it should be two. It is purely an apparatus for distribution, for mere sharing out. So, here is a positive suggestion: change this apparatus over from distribution to communication. The radio would be the finest possible communication apparatus in public life,[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Rally Against Tytler And Others Involved In 1984 Anti-Sikh Massacre Held In Canada

Rally Against Tytler And Others Involved In 1984 Anti-Sikh Massacre Held In Canada

South Asian activists gathered at Holland Park in Surrey on Sunday evening to protest against Jagdish Tytler and other Congress leaders involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre. Organized by the Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI), the rally was held in response to the recent disclosures made by the former union minister and senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler. Tytler had[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Asma Jahangir- An Exceptional Human Rights Activist Is No More

Asma Jahangir- An Exceptional Human Rights Activist Is No More

Asma Jahangir (1952-2018), the leading Human Rights activist of Pakistan who influenced generations of activists in South Asia is no more. She died in Lahore due to a cardiac arrest. A sad news for all those who has stood for the human rights protection and enhancement of the humane values in the contemporary world. Whenever any issue of human rights[Read More…]

by 12/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights, South Asia
“Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 6: Worker-Artist Faguram Yadav

“Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 6: Worker-Artist Faguram Yadav

On May 6th, 2015 Faguram Yadav, my one time fellow-warrior, breathed his last. The history of the labour movement in modern India cannot be told without the story of Chhattisgarh Mines ShramikSangh, its main organizer Shankar GuhaNiyogi, and the tales of struggle, sacrifice and victory of the brave iron mine workers of Dalli-Rajhara. An account of the movement for the[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Other Animals And Humans Aren’t So Different!

Other Animals And Humans Aren’t So Different!

My cat likes to watch some YouTube videos. So we spend around a half hour a day watching them together. Here are two of her favorites. (They are somewhat boring to me.) CAT GAMES – SUPER STRING THING (FOR CATS ONLY) – YouTube ▶ 3:41 Jun 10, 2017 – Uploaded by Gaming Palooza Empire Gaming Palooza Empire. … Thanks for supporting[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Canada’s Deep Systemic Racial Bias

Canada’s Deep Systemic Racial Bias

The news was released tonight (Friday, February 09) at about 18:30h that the jury in the trial of a Canadian farmer near Battleford, Saskatchewan found him not guilty for the murder of a young native, Colten Boushie. Boushie was killed August 09, 2016. The episode highlights, for those who care to examine the case, the underlying powerful racial prejudice that[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 2 comments Human Rights
Lauri Love, Hacking And Extradition

Lauri Love, Hacking And Extradition

“Horse-trading determines who goes to jail and for how long.  That is what plea bargaining is.  It is not some adjunct to the criminal justice system; it is the criminal justice system.” US Supreme Court Justice Kennedy (2012) The February 5 decision of the British court refusing to permit the extradition of hactivist Lauri Love was more than an opinion.[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Don’t You Know What Happened?

Don’t You Know What Happened?

  “In less than ten years, two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water stressed conditions.” — one of the last lines of the documentary spotlighted in this article “[It is] the most pervasive, most severe, and most invisible dimension of the ecological devastation of the earth.” — Vandana Shiva commenting on the worldwide water crisis in her Water[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
The Second Watershed Dishonorably Denied

The Second Watershed Dishonorably Denied

People are crazy and times are strange I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range I used to care, but things have changed  — from Bob Dylan’s Things Have Changed The year 1966 brought an unwelcome hiatus from Bob Dylan’s ceaseless productivity; he was in a terrible motorcycle accident, and took some time off to recover. To fill the void, Columbia Records[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
The Line Is Hot And You’re On The Spot

The Line Is Hot And You’re On The Spot

  There are three poisonous elements in the Apple iPhone I’d like to spotlight here to put you on the spot. There are many more horrific aspects to the high tech gadget — relating to the product itself and how it manages to get produced — but I don’t want to overload you at present. Right now… I just want[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
On Our Arthritic Snail’s Pace

On Our Arthritic Snail’s Pace

 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process by a United States government commission to increase United States Defense Department efficiency by planning the end of the Cold War realignment and closure of military installations. More than 350 installations have been closed in five BRAC rounds: 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995, and 2005, but we have to question what’s been involved in those closures environmentally… because, as we know, the U.S. military is,[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Child Sexual Abuse: India Has Miles To Go

Child Sexual Abuse: India Has Miles To Go

Co-Written By Ashish Kumar Singh and Shirin Shabana Khan 2017-18 is witnessing a transition where not only the successful (mostly online) campaign #Me-too is shaking our psyche, but also imprisonment to Larry Nassar up to almost 300 years in different cases is painfully relieving for the majority of us. India’s attitude towards sexual abuse and child sexual abuse needs an[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Kashmir’s Youth In Haryana: Worrisome Developments That Need Sensitive Handling

Kashmir’s Youth In Haryana: Worrisome Developments That Need Sensitive Handling

Within the span of not more than ten days there have been two incidents of Kashmiris being beaten up in Haryana. The first news came from Mahendergarh around the last weekend, and the second just a couple of days back from Mullana in Ambala district. In 2016 there were similar reports of Kashmiri youth being beaten up in a private[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
 Zainab and Asifa: Living In Darker Times

 Zainab and Asifa: Living In Darker Times

We are living in darker times and these are turning more darker with each passing day. Killing of children in conflict zones like Kashmir, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan is continuing with no stop to these. From 2008 onwards in Kashmir we have seen in popular uprisings, how children have been killed and blinded by state backed forces. Year after year, we[Read More…]

by 11/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Fabricated Reality: Lobbying For GMO Agriculture In India

Fabricated Reality: Lobbying For GMO Agriculture In India

Richard John Roberts is a prominent biochemist and molecular biologist. On his recent visits to India, he has talked about the supposed virtues of genetically modified (GM) food and crops, while attacking people who have valid concerns about the technology. In 2015, while in Mysore, he implied the denial of GM food to people in developing nations is a crime against[Read More…]

Keeping an Eye On Australia: Admiral Harry Harris Goes To Canberra

Keeping an Eye On Australia: Admiral Harry Harris Goes To Canberra

Imperial arrangements require decent overseer of subjects.  In the Pax Americana, which is, in fact, rather violent, Australia is indispensable in the Pacific theatre.  It offers land, facilities, and the means to eye future enemies and keep allies in check.  Wedged between China and the United States, Australia could focus on smoothing rocky roads and building bridges.  But this is[Read More…]

by 10/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
 Some Thoughts on Sorting Out the Controversy Around Aziz Ansari, Sexual Relations, and Getting Beyond Both Patriarchy and Revenge

 Some Thoughts on Sorting Out the Controversy Around Aziz Ansari, Sexual Relations, and Getting Beyond Both Patriarchy and Revenge

  Recent months have seen a righteous outpouring against the pervasive abuse, harassment, sexual assault, discrimination, humiliation, and degradation women are forced to endure in every realm of life. This is extremely positive and takes on heightened importance in light of—and, no doubt, is fueled by—the ugly shock of Trump, a bragging sexual predator, assuming the presidency and using the[Read More…]

by 10/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
Two Journalists Face Trial In Ahwaz For Criticizing Education Officials 

Two Journalists Face Trial In Ahwaz For Criticizing Education Officials 

Two journalists in the Arab region of Ahwaz in Iran have been summoned to appear in a regime court after they condemned the deteriorating standards of education in the region, which are the worst in the country. The journalists, NaimHamidi and Sayed Nashan Al-Boshawka, both wrote articles criticizing the performance of the education directorate in Ahwaz, condemning the terrible conditions[Read More…]

by 10/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Activist Being Through A Glass Darkly

Activist Being Through A Glass Darkly

“Dawkins… seems to suffer from a ‘god in the sky’ childhood Bible indoctrination. “ — excerpt from a colleague referring to Richard Dawkins “From the oscillating universe beating like a gigantic heart to the puzzling existence of antimatter, order — in a human sense — is at least partially an illusion. Ours — in reality — is the order of a time, and[Read More…]

by 10/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Pain, Love And Hope

Pain, Love And Hope

  I was sad to read that Binu, editor at Countercurrents, has been recently suffering. I, actually, have genuinely loved Binu and his family for more than ten years while following their personal and professional affairs. So I was sad to read his words: “I was walking through a desolation row for the last few days. I felt burnt out,[Read More…]

by 10/02/2018 4 comments Life/Philosophy
"Might we, by willful choice, transition from Earth exploiters to Earth healers?" (Photo: Bart/flickr/cc)

Economic System Reform: Saving The Planet; Salvaging The Human Prospect

Economic systems include elements of design. Economic systems are not the progeny of happenstance, nor are they beyond our powers, like the sun and moon and stars above. And based on how things have worked out, nor are they the fruit of unimpeachable wisdom. In any case, they are influential. If a successful human presence on earth – which includes[Read More…]

by 10/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
Vastu, Ecology, Stories & Folk-Expressions – A Story of the Great Loot

Vastu, Ecology, Stories & Folk-Expressions – A Story of the Great Loot

This is a real story. An ancient continuum – like a play that’s been unfolding itself since times beyond recorded or remembered history. Before getting familiar with the main characters of this play, let us know of the great teller – the folk. Roughly sixty thousand years ago[i], the folk, who are the people of the world, moved out of[Read More…]

Pakistan’s Voiceless Pashtuns Find Voice

Pakistan’s Voiceless Pashtuns Find Voice

Is it not ironic that two very similar insurgencies have simultaneously been going on in Pakistan for the last several years: the Baloch insurgency in the Balochistan province and the insurgency of the Pashtun tribesmen in the tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering the US-occupied Afghanistan. While the Pakistani neoliberal elites fully sympathize with the oppressed Baloch nationalists, when[Read More…]

by 10/02/2018 1 comment South Asia
Mother Tongue First: Kashmir And Kashmiri Language

Mother Tongue First: Kashmir And Kashmiri Language

Co-Written By: Zeeshan Rasool Khan& Eram Hameed Khan Wilhelm von Humboldt aptly said: “Absolutely nothing is as important for nation’s culture as its language”. Culture and language have the deep-rooted relationship with language constituting an indispensable element of culture. The latter is key component involved in nation building and can be termed as oil that keeps nation and society functional.[Read More…]

by 10/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
What’s My Crime?

What’s My Crime?

The killing shot is just behind the shoulder. Aim for the spot behind the elbow and your bullet will tear through skin and muscle, enter the rib cage and pulverize the heart. If it gets deflected by a rib it will still go through the lungs and graze the heart enough to cause massive bleeding. But it is not a[Read More…]

by 10/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Faiz Ahmed Faiz: The Fiery Conscience Of Our Times

Faiz Ahmed Faiz: The Fiery Conscience Of Our Times

  Faiz Ahmed Faiz—the poet, teacher, editor, freedom-fighter, dramatist, critic, progressive writer and Lenin Peace Prize recipient—is one of the greatest poets of the Indian subcontinent. He was not a mere dreamer of dreams but was an iconoclast who inspired a million mutinies. Great poets like Faiz are warriors and serve as the sentinels of the collective conscience of their[Read More…]

by 10/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Arts/Literature
Korea: An Olympic Truce – Time For Concerted Nongovernmental Efforts

Korea: An Olympic Truce – Time For Concerted Nongovernmental Efforts

  The holding of the Winter Olympics in South Korea from February 9 to 25, followed by the Paralympics on March 9-18, may be an opportunity to undertake negotiations in good faith to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula and to establish, or re-establish, forms of cooperation between the two Korean governments. Such negotiations in good faith would be in[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 1 comment World
Try Learning Not to Ride a Bicycle So We Can Save the World

Try Learning Not to Ride a Bicycle So We Can Save the World

  “Who would study and describe the living, starts /By driving the spirits out of the parts: /In the palm of his hand he holds all the sections, /Lacks nothing, except the spirit’s connections.” Mephistopheles warning to the student in Goethe’s Faust   “And how far would you like to go in?” he asked and the three kings all looked[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Technology And Its Discontents

Technology And Its Discontents

Tucked within the pages of the January issue of the ‘Agriview’, a monthly farm publication published by the State of Vermont, was a short survey from the Department of Public Service (DPS). Described as an aid to the Department in drafting their “Ten Year Telecom Plan”, the survey contains eight questions, the first seven of which are simple multiple-choice queries[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
Templates Of Denial: Selective History And Poland’s Holocaust Law

Templates Of Denial: Selective History And Poland’s Holocaust Law

Holocaust history has never been far away from political manipulation.  The deaths of millions tends to supply various causes: for those who survive, radicalisation can be imminent.  For those who participated in the killings, justification and denial can combine in cruel fashion.  Some, prompted by guilt, embrace the memories of those slain with a zeal akin to a civil religion;[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
 What ‘News’Media in U.S. And Allied Countries Never Report

 What ‘News’Media in U.S. And Allied Countries Never Report

  Newsmedia effectively ban reporting corruptness of newsmedia — even of media that stand on the opposite side of the political divide. The ‘news’media in the U.S. and allied countries never report the corruption (including lying) perpetrated by any except the very few non-mainstream media that are authentically pro-democracy (or “anti-Establishment” or “anti-elitist” — which doesn’t necessarily mean the same[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
The Balfour Declaration – Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine

The Balfour Declaration – Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine

The Balfour Declaration – Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine. Bernard Regan. Verso, London/NY, 2017. With the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, a number of books have been published covering the topic in different ways.Bernard Regan’s The Balfour Declaration adds to this library, tending to be within an academic political presentation. In his acknowledgements Regan writes that his[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Book Review
 Propaganda! Pardon Me, Is Mine Really Bigger Than Yours?

 Propaganda! Pardon Me, Is Mine Really Bigger Than Yours?

Andre Vltchek They say Propaganda! In the West, both the mainstream media and even some of the so-called progressive outlets are shouting: “Those Russians and Chinese and the others like them, they are at it again! Their vicious propaganda is infiltrating our democratic, freedom-loving countries, spreading confusion and chaos!” Yes, ban or at least curb RT, contain TeleSur, and if[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
The Facade Of Repatriation For The Rohingyas

The Facade Of Repatriation For The Rohingyas

  The 680,000 Rohingyas escaping from the jaws of death in Myanmar, to Bangladesh, were recovering from their traumatic experience, when the news of an agreement finalized by the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh, caused a lot of concern and depression among them. Firstly, apart from the main “Citizenship” factor and unreasonable “verification procedure”, the humanitarian aspect was completely neglected;[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
UP Dy CM Intimidates State Officers Who Expressed Opinion Against Communalism

UP Dy CM Intimidates State Officers Who Expressed Opinion Against Communalism

People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) condemns remarks made by the UP Dy CM Mr KC Maurya against District Magistrate of Bareilly as pure intimidation and a brazen effort to browbeat officers who express their opinion against communalism.In an FB post put up after the recent Kasganj communal violence the officer Mr Raghvendra Vikram Singh had questioned the increasing[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Communal Harmony
Union Budget 2018-19: An Exercise In Jugglery Of Numbers

Union Budget 2018-19: An Exercise In Jugglery Of Numbers

New Delhi, February 8, 2018: Calling this year’s union budget ‘just an exercise in manipulation of numbers,’ veteran activist Medha Patkar asked, “When the major decisions like the demonetisation and GST are taken between two budgets then what’s the relevance of the Budget?,” at a panel discussion on the analysis of this year’s union budget with a special focus on[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
India Pakistan: The Coming War

India Pakistan: The Coming War

  Photos of grieving women and old men hugging the casket soldier killed on the Jammu and Kashmir border skirmish are appearing on the front pages of newspapers almost every day. Dressed in battle fatigues and bullet proof jackets, Indian army jawans and personnel of the Border Security Forces are constantly moving through border hamlets and paddy fields to take[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 Comments are Disabled South Asia
Why Indians Are Averse To Repaying Loans?

Why Indians Are Averse To Repaying Loans?

  Most people have a psychological aversion to repaying bank loans. In several cases, they have sufficient assets and capital to redeem their debt but they use every possible means to avoid it.  Things have turned so bad that whether it is an individual or institution, getting back any money at all is a reason for celebration. We have seen[Read More…]

by 09/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Photo by riagarwa

Perspectives On Activism: Waiting And Being Present

  “The more people I meet, the happier I become.” -Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot In the interregnum, we find ourselves as citizens waiting…for something. We bide our time with pablums, social media, or sports, or even pseudo-political debates. Many have insulated themselves from real issues: economic, social, and ecological justice. Capitalism imposes a state of captivity, one where spontaneity[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Uncategorized
The Demonization of President Vladimir Putin Must Stop

The Demonization of President Vladimir Putin Must Stop

No other world leader is more demonized and slandered by the Western media than the Russian President Vladimir Putin. All the major US media outlets and corporations caricature one of the most rational and thoughtful leaders on the international stage. Compared to Donald Trump, Theresa May, and Emanuel Macron, not to speak of the most overrated Angela Merkel, Putin has[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 1 comment World
The Aadhaar Fiasco

The Aadhaar Fiasco

Our constitution entitles every citizen, of this great democracy, with meticulously detailed rights which forms the broad strokes that enables one to enjoy the nuances of the method of democracy. As time evolves the broad spectrum offered by these rights starts to branch out into multiple rights of their own drawing existence from the predecessor. One such right is the[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
NAPM Condemns The Kerala ‘Caste Wall’ And The Police Brutality

NAPM Condemns The Kerala ‘Caste Wall’ And The Police Brutality

08.02.2018, Kochi, Kerala: Kerala Police unleashed brutality against the Dalit Atmabhiman Convention organized by the Dalit Bhoo Avakasha Samara Munnani (Dalit Land Rights’ Organisation) in Kochi on 4th February. The convention was taking place peacefully while it was suddenly attacked by the police in the morning. As the police broke-in, many activists including the Chairman of Samara Munnani, C.S. Murali[Read More…]

“A Critical Insider In Expat Journalism: VM Sathish Remembered”  

“A Critical Insider In Expat Journalism: VM Sathish Remembered”  

The unexpected demise of V.M. Sathish—a veteran Expat-journalist who spent a quarter century of reporting in the GCC countries—has left a deep vacuum in the domain of ‘human interest’ writings in the world of media. Sathish has a reputed track-record in Expat-journalism.  Beginning with the Indian Express  Group of newspapers in Mumbai, he held many positions over the next  two[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Outing The US Empire: Trump’s Military Parade

Outing The US Empire: Trump’s Military Parade

You only had to see him goggle eyed and enthusiastic beside France’s President Emmanuel Macron last Bastille Day.  The tricolours were fluttering, the jets booming above in the manner usual for a lapsed empire, and the President of the United States was thrilled to bits, delighted at the spectacle.  “It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen.  We’re[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Imperialism
Foreign Policy For Sale: Greece’s Dangerous Alliance With Israel

Foreign Policy For Sale: Greece’s Dangerous Alliance With Israel

For a brief historical moment, Alexis Tsipras and his political party, Syriza, ignited hope that Greece could resurrect a long-dormant Leftist tide in Europe. A new Greece was being born out of the pangs of pain of economic austerity, imposed by the European Union and its overpowering economic institutions – a troika so ruthless, it cared little while the Greek[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 1 comment World
Photo by Ben Sutherland

Why They Enter  Into Their Mothers’ Profession(Sex Trade)?

In a study of Commercial Female Sex Workers(CFSWs) of Bowbazar red-light area of Kolkata, it was found that 58% of them came from various oppressed castes originally residing in backward rural areas of West Bengal and Bangladesh driven to the trade by extreme poverty. Eleven percent of these, CFWSs were brought into this trade because their lovers or paramour trapped[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
The Fear Driving US Nuclear Strategy

The Fear Driving US Nuclear Strategy

The United States Department of Defense released its latest ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018’ (NPR) on 2 February, updating the last one issued in 2010 during the previous administration. See ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018’. The Executive Summary of the NPR is also available, if you prefer. See ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018 Executive Summary’. Several authors have already thoughtfully exposed a phenomenal[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 1 comment World
Hit And Run

Hit And Run

“…truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long….” — Act II, Scene ii, The Merchant of Venice Police chases are a top cause of auto accidents, but at least law enforcement officials don’t leave the scene of horror on the road. That’s not to excuse cops for what I personally consider — most of the time — totally[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Demonizing Kashmiris!

Demonizing Kashmiris!

(The greatest achievement of the present central government has been demonizing of Kashmiris throughout India!) The incidents of beating Kashmiri students in different institutions in India have been spreading like an epidemic. Every second day or so one hears about the students being roughed up in one or the other institution, in buses, in trains and so on. In fact,[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 1 comment Uncategorized
US Jingoism vs. Russian Propaganda: From ‘The List’ To Social Media Censorship

US Jingoism vs. Russian Propaganda: From ‘The List’ To Social Media Censorship

Let’s take the infamous The List article apart, along with the growing social media censorship surrounding it, and this whole subject of alternative English-language media’s infiltration by ‘Russian Propaganda’—just to clear the missile strewn air a wee bit insofar as that may be possible with hardened silos on either side.The List article begins with the not-so-subtle subtitle ‘An Initial Set of Sites That[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 1 comment World
Simultaneous Elections: Another Political Stunt

Simultaneous Elections: Another Political Stunt

Among the political galleries of India there have been discussions about holding simultaneous elections for the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha every five years. The momentum for this ambitious proposal was generated by the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Prime Minister himself. Last year, Mr Narendra modi while unveiling his “15 year vision document for new India”[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 1 comment India
Constitutional Concerns

Constitutional Concerns

Why did senior retired bureaucrats and Veterans of the Armed Forces together organize a Conclave in Delhi on October 10, 2017, on “A Fractured Polity – the Relevance of Gandhi Today “, and another on “Hinduism and Hindutva” on January 30, 2018, Gandhiji’s death anniversary? Why did they write Open Letters in the last few months raising concerns about the[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Budget Shines A Flashlight On India’s Poor Women

Budget Shines A Flashlight On India’s Poor Women

Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. India has a larger relative economic value at stake from advancing gender equality than any of the ten regions analysed in a McKinsey Global Institute report, The Power of Parity: How Advancing Women’s Equality Can add $12 Trillion To Global Growth. The report[Read More…]

by 08/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Patriarchy
‘Caste Wall’ In Kerala: Civil Society Condemns Police Brutality

‘Caste Wall’ In Kerala: Civil Society Condemns Police Brutality

Social activists, writers, film makers, academicians and members of the civil society have condemned the police brutality unleashed by the Kerala Police against the Dalit Atmabhiman Convention organized by the Dalit Bhoo Avakasha Samara Munnani (Dalit Land Rights’ Organisation) in Vadayampadi, Kochi on 4th February. Prominent signatories include Aruna Roy, Prafulla Samanthra, Kavitha Srivasthava, Teesta Setalvad, K. Sachithanandan, Paul Zakharia,[Read More…]

by 07/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India, Annihilate Caste
Empowering The Powerless: Here’s How To End Energy Poverty

Empowering The Powerless: Here’s How To End Energy Poverty

Millions of people die prematurely of indoor pollution and other consequences of energy poverty. But there is a way to empower the powerless: with renewable energy microgrids and decentralized technologies. “Power to the people,” the activists chanted in the 1960s. The revolutionaries of yesteryear never dreamed of the scientific and technological innovations that could light up distant shelters and communities in the[Read More…]

by 07/02/2018 1 comment Counter Solutions
Julian Assange Loses Initial Bid To Overturn British Arrest Warrant

Julian Assange Loses Initial Bid To Overturn British Arrest Warrant

A judge in London yesterday rejected an application by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to withdraw a British arrest warrant issued against him in 2012. In a judgment full of obvious contradictions, she ruled that way even though a Swedish-initiated European arrest warrant—the trigger for the British warrant—was cancelled in May 2017. Despite the trumped-up Swedish government “sexual assault” allegations against[Read More…]

by 07/02/2018 2 comments World
“Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 5: The Sharab Bandi Movement

“Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 5: The Sharab Bandi Movement

The large majority of the contract workers of Dalli-Rajhara were adivasi or tribal people. For adivasis, consuming alcohol is part of their cultural tradition. They collect mahua flowers from the forest and brew their own liquor at home. Alcohol is an inseparable part of any family event or social celebration. Men and women, young and old, drink together at festivals[Read More…]

by 07/02/2018 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Palestinian Me Too: 140 Alphabetically-listed Zionist Crimes Expose Appalling Western Complicity & Hypocrisy

Palestinian Me Too: 140 Alphabetically-listed Zionist Crimes Expose Appalling Western Complicity & Hypocrisy

  One quarter of the sorely Zionist-oppressed Palestinians are women, half are women and girls, half are children and three quarters are women and children, but Western politicians overwhelmingly support the deadly,  criminal and genocidal Zionist colonial enterprise and a nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel.  Yet these same politicians would be quite properly condemned and hounded from office for non-deadly and non-illegal[Read More…]

by 07/02/2018 13 comments Palestine
The “Memo Affair”—An Act Towards A Fascist America

The “Memo Affair”—An Act Towards A Fascist America

On February 2, acting with the authorization of Donald Trump, the Republican leadership of the House Intelligence Committee released a four-page memo produced by its Republican majority on alleged FISA abuses. FISA (Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act) courts are the arm of the judiciary that approves electronic surveillance, based on evidence provided by law enforcement. The memo’s central charge is that[Read More…]

by 07/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Of Mice and Men By John Steinbeck

Of Rats & Men

John Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men midway through the 1930s, the most creative decade of his career. During that time he was becoming increasingly concerned, it seems, about social and economic problems in California, what Upton Sinclair was focusing on in his End Poverty in California movement. In fact, he published three successive novels about farm workers during that[Read More…]

by 07/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Urging For Media’s Accountability In India

Urging For Media’s Accountability In India

  As the alternate media expands its reaches to hundred thousand Indians across the country, thanks to increasingly cheaper internet connectivity, its restraint and liability also start surfacing in public discourses. The limitation and gradually losing credibility of the mainstream media may pave the way for a boosting alternate media, but it is still miles apart from the trustworthiness among[Read More…]

by 07/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
The Human Population: Accepting Earth’s Limitations

The Human Population: Accepting Earth’s Limitations

I thank Fowler and Hobbs for their letter (2004) and their research (2003). The view that a complexity of factors impacts human population growth certainly makes sense, and they have correctly pointed out that scientifically organized efforts to deal with human problems must take account of manifold interconnected events. Although it is necessary to recognize and acknowledge the complexities inherent[Read More…]

by 06/02/2018 2 comments Resource Crisis
Kashmir: Winds From The Other Side Of LoC

Kashmir: Winds From The Other Side Of LoC

Kashmir stirs emotion, debate, politics, sense of rights, legal and geopolitical questions, terrible memories and sad stories, sense of urgency, demands, activism, pains, poems and songs, allurement, greed, mobility, hatred, plans, killings, conspiracies, skirmishes and war. A major part of political psyche in and around the region has been anchored in Kashmir. Most of the mainstream media reports focus on[Read More…]

by 06/02/2018 2 comments Kashmir
Refugees ….. Are They A ‘Problem’ ?

Refugees ….. Are They A ‘Problem’ ?

We came here to find refuge They called us refugees So we hid ourselves in their language Until we sounded just like them…… J J BOLA … “Refuge” India has grappled with refugees many times in history. According to UNHCR there are about 31, 000 refugees registered with the organisation by the end of December 2014. In the 16/17 centuries[Read More…]

by 06/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
My Jewish Learning

My Jewish Learning

A continuum of oppression is pervasive in Palestinian society, ranging from the matrix of control the Jewish state has imposed on Palestine to the oppression of cultural norms, such as those having to do with patriarchy, gender and class that are common to all societies toone degree or another. Because of the degradation, humiliation and devaluation Palestinians daily encounter, even[Read More…]

by 06/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Palestine
 Review: State of Terror: How Terrorism Created Modern Israel

 Review: State of Terror: How Terrorism Created Modern Israel

“A Nazi is a Nazi he be a Jew or otherwise, and it is a false sentiment of the Jewish people to condemn Nazism and condone Jewish fascism.” Hashomer Hatzair, 13th March, 1946 Thomas Suárez‘ State of Terror: How terrorism created modern Israel, in my opinion, belongs in the top 5 most invaluable books on the history of modern Palestine.[Read More…]

by 06/02/2018 3 comments Book Review
Not President Trump Is A Threat To Democracy But The Deep State

Not President Trump Is A Threat To Democracy But The Deep State

The Americans want the world to believe that their democracy is “exceptional,” which indeed it is for real believers, but the US political system is also second to none in its political criminality, corruption and aggressiveness against states that don’t follow its orders. In this respect, there hasn’t been any difference between Democratic or Republican presidents. Since Trump became the[Read More…]

by 06/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
The Four Most Important Things To Avoid In Activism

The Four Most Important Things To Avoid In Activism

  Recently, an article of mine was posted which received a record number of responses (for my pieces). I’m using that work as a point of departure here for providing another submission which I hope will generate as much interaction, feedback. If you glance at the short previous work first (link above), the ten points below might resonate better than[Read More…]

Why It’s Loving To Be Anti-American(s) & Pro Law Not Just Anti-US Gov & Anti-Wall St.

Why It’s Loving To Be Anti-American(s) & Pro Law Not Just Anti-US Gov & Anti-Wall St.

Anyone able to imagine one’s own child in a pool of its own blood would have to be against a society that writes off millions of dead children as collateral damage. US military action in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Iraq alone, brought death to 5 million dead kids! If one is a normal human being and loves all children[Read More…]

by 06/02/2018 2 comments Imperialism
Jotirao Phule ,Satyashodhak Samaj And RSS

Jotirao Phule ,Satyashodhak Samaj And RSS

After the end of Peshwa – Brahmin rule in today’s Western Maharashtra, English rule began and it was through a war in 1818 at a place near Pune – Bhima Koregaon, Peshwa army was defeated by English army unit the Mahar regiment. Thus Peshwa rule was defeated through Mahar Caste (Untouchables) regiment by the British. In a way it was[Read More…]

by 06/02/2018 1 comment Annihilate Caste
 Learning Limits

 Learning Limits

One of my friends sent me this email. Let’s call him P.: Probably most of you have seen seemingly outlandish allegations about powerful Washington figures involved in pedophilia. They seem so outrageous that there is a tendency to reject them out of hand. However, there are a couple of corroborating facts. First there is Epstein’s island in the Caribbean and[Read More…]

by 05/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
A 14-Year-Old Girl Forced Alone And At Night Into The Gaza Cage. Another Routine Mishap For Israel’s Occupation

A 14-Year-Old Girl Forced Alone And At Night Into The Gaza Cage. Another Routine Mishap For Israel’s Occupation

  Nazareth: How did a 14-year-old Palestinian girl who has never set foot in the open-air prison of Gaza find herself being dumped there by Israeli officials – alone, at night and without her parents being informed? The terrifying ordeal – a child realising she had not been taken home but discarded in a place where she knew no one[Read More…]

by 05/02/2018 4 comments Palestine
Rumblings In The Tory Palace: Theresa May And The Brexit Troika

Rumblings In The Tory Palace: Theresa May And The Brexit Troika

As the Sunday news vine began getting heavy, that sole topic of all-consuming, toxic interest – Brexit – threatened to claim the casualty of the British Prime Minister herself, Theresa May.  Interest centred on a possible troika that had busied itself on harrying May. In any context, this troika would have seemed a compilation for pure comic effect: buffoonish Boris[Read More…]

by 05/02/2018 1 comment World
U.S. Foreign Policies Remain Unchanged Since 1948

U.S. Foreign Policies Remain Unchanged Since 1948

Ever since 1948, the U.S. Government’s foreign policies have been consistently focused upon breaking up the Soviet Union and turning its Warsaw Pact allies against the Soviet Union; and, then, once that would be (and was) accomplished, turning any remaining allies of Russia against Russia; and, then, once that will have been accomplished, conquering Russia. Since at least 2006, U.S.[Read More…]

by 05/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
New Defense Strategy: War With Great Nations And Arms Race

New Defense Strategy: War With Great Nations And Arms Race

Co-Written by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers This week, following the recent announcement of a new National Defense Strategy that focuses on conflicts with great powers and a new arms race, the Pentagon announced an escalation of nuclear weapons development. The United States’ military is spread across the world, including several dangerous conflict areas that could develop into an all-out[Read More…]

by 05/02/2018 2 comments Imperialism
 Commonsense College

 Commonsense College

“Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek’d against his creed”  — Tennyson Most college professors of literature — most readers of Flaubert across the board — will tell you that the characters in Madame Bovary are bourgeois. But one thing that should be called attention to[Read More…]

11 Pakistani Soldiers Killed By Taliban Gaining Strength In Afghanistan

11 Pakistani Soldiers Killed By Taliban Gaining Strength In Afghanistan

  A suicide bomber killed at least 11 Pakistani army soldiers and injured 13 at an army camp in Sawat Valley on Saturday (Feb 3). An army Captain was among those who died in the bombing. Army officials in Swat told the press that the soldiers were playing a volleyball match outside their base camp in Kabal in lower Swat[Read More…]

by 05/02/2018 1 comment South Asia
Is Sri Lanka Going To Be The Next China Town In Indian Ocean?

Is Sri Lanka Going To Be The Next China Town In Indian Ocean?

Co-Written by Punsara Amarasinghe & Eshan Mandara Jayawardane Chinese presence in Sri Lanka was not emerged out of the blue in the island’s recent political past.  Having located in a crucial geographic location in maritime silk route Sri Lankan history claims a long standing affinity with China in its rich history. However Sino Sri Lankan relations in the post independent[Read More…]

by 05/02/2018 2 comments South Asia
Rally For Gauri Lankesh And Rohith Vemula Held In Canada

Rally For Gauri Lankesh And Rohith Vemula Held In Canada

The South Asian activists gathered at Holland Park in Surrey on Sunday evening to remember Gauri Lankesh and Rohith Vemula, the two prominent victims of the right wing extremists. Organized by the Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI), the rally was held to mark the birth anniversaries of the two individuals who stood up against the violence of Hindutva forces.[Read More…]

by 05/02/2018 1 comment India
Crisis For NREGA

Crisis For NREGA

In its recent press release the NREGA Sangrash Morcha brought in several important issues which we need to reflect upon for the efficient implementation of one of the world’s biggest employment guarantee schemes. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) budget for 2018-19 is Rs 55,000 crores, the same as that of this year’s in money terms. (The[Read More…]

by 05/02/2018 1 comment India
Kerala’s Remittance Economy: Impending Crisis

Kerala’s Remittance Economy: Impending Crisis

The ‘insider-outsider’ problematic of diaspora gives every Malayali’s life a degree of tension and uncertainty today. For the six million remittance-dependent population of Kerala, no news from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is comforting. Of late, the distress signals from countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait etc are too many. So are their implications for Kerala. The major documents[Read More…]

by 05/02/2018 7 comments India
Budget 2018 : The Opportunity Cost of a Failed Fiscal Deficit

Budget 2018 : The Opportunity Cost of a Failed Fiscal Deficit

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley just gave away his  fifth and final Budget speech at the parliament this thursday. This budget, for the country and the BJP led NDA government, has remained to act a crucial one. Couple of factors determines this – Firstly, its the first budget that the country is witnessing after having one of its major economic move[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
Police Brutality Once Again On Dalits Protesting The ‘Caste Wall’ In Kerala

Police Brutality Once Again On Dalits Protesting The ‘Caste Wall’ In Kerala

The protest against the ‘Caste Wall’ at Vadayampady, near Kochi in Kerala took an ugly turn when the police and RSS/Sangh Parivar goons attacked dozens of protesters gathered for a dalit ‘Self Respect’ march. Hundreds of dalits and progressive activists had gathered at Vadayampady today morning shouting the slogan ‘Jai Bhim’. Sangh Parivar goons numbering around fifty attacked the protesters.[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Annihilate Caste
 Delegation arriving in Honduras/ Photo credit: Ken Jones

Accompanying Honduras

As the bus was taking our accompaniment delegation to Honduras to the airport for our return home, it stopped by the offices of Radio Progreso. Piling on to the bus came some twenty staff members of the station to bid us goodbye. Each of them greeted us with an embrace, a kiss, or a clasp of hands expressing heartfelt gratitude[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 1 comment World
Negligence: The Iran Regime’s Passive Weapon To Eradicate Ahwazis

Negligence: The Iran Regime’s Passive Weapon To Eradicate Ahwazis

Since seizing power in the wake of the 1979 revolution, Iran’s theocratic regime has worked  tirelessly to effectively make the Ahwazi Arab population ‘non-people’ and eradicate their history, culture and existence.   This is achieved through what are effectively apartheid policies of racial discrimination, importing large numbers of ‘superior’ ethnically Persian settlers to the region; these policies are, of course, familiar,[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 1 comment Human Rights
The Charade of Trump’s State of the Union Speech

The Charade of Trump’s State of the Union Speech

  The least popular American president; Donald Trump, whose popularity hovers around 30%, took the podium to address the American people about the state of the union on Tuesday January 30th. Although the words of the speech were very carefully selected, and Trump seemed to be intensely coached to be serious, he could not completely hide his narcissistic, self-aggrandizing conceited[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review: Expanding and Strengthening the Imperial Death Machine

Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review: Expanding and Strengthening the Imperial Death Machine

  A draft “Nuclear Posture Review” (NPR), prepared under the direction of James Mattis, secretary of “defense” in the Trump/Pence fascist regime, has been posted on the Huffington Post website (Jan. 11). The NPR, which will be finalized in February, is a strategic document that lays out the direction for the development and use of nuclear weapons. It regards nuclear[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
 The Four Most Important Activist Qualities

 The Four Most Important Activist Qualities

  A week after the U.S. 9/11 I was in France conducting an art workshop for painters from various parts of the globe, and I was thinking about the Chilean 9/11. I suggested a little quiz — ten definitions of an activist, and from those ten those engaged in plein aire painting had to choose four definitions that would combine[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Lovely Leitmotif For Collective Optimism

Lovely Leitmotif For Collective Optimism

  “Against Nature’s silence I use action In the vast indifference I invent a meaning I don’t watch unmoved I intervene and say that this and this are wrong and I work to alter them and improve them The important thing is to pull yourself up by your own hair to turn yourself inside out and see the whole world[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Dreams, Stories And Facts

Dreams, Stories And Facts

  Last night I dreamt of an organic farm collective related to cows . On the collective’s milk containers were the words: “By rule and law, this milk is not to be used to kill, trap or poach.” In response, I thought in the dream that it was admirable, but foolish to make such a claim or legal demand. For[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Kashmir To Dehradun!!!

Kashmir To Dehradun!!!

Dehradun is one of the safest cities in India. It is considered as an educational hub, with students from every nook and corner of India – especially from Kashmir valley – coming here for schooling as well as for higher education. Making life easy especially for those who have come travelling from distances away from home with academic objectives, crimes[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 1 comment Kashmir
When The Poor Are Made Guinea Pigs

When The Poor Are Made Guinea Pigs

  India has long been a testing ground for several western products, particularly in agriculture and medicine—making the most of loose regulations and genetic diversity of a huge population. It is done to help cut research costs dramatically for lucrative products to be sold in the West. The relationship is highly exploitative and many believe it represents a new colonialism.[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 1 comment India
Part-Time Mothering And Childhood

Part-Time Mothering And Childhood

The family is the basic social, cultural and economic unit of the society of India. ‘It was loaded with kin relations and the support system of the family protected from any sorts of problem in the family. Social bonding and social network are exemplary strong.’ But present global scenario breaks its structure and processes due to economy, unemployment and urban[Read More…]

by 04/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
World Is Burning – While Western Left Is Quarreling

World Is Burning – While Western Left Is Quarreling

It really is a shame, and it is tiring, but it is actuallynothing new: there is now total disarray amongst those countless‘progressive’ and ‘semi-left’ Western intellectuals, publications, movements and political parties. Cowardice, bloated egos, lack of discipline and intellectual pettiness are often to blame, but that is not all. It is now absolutely clear that the Western left lost patently[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 2 comments World
How Big a Disaster Can Climate Change Be?

How Big a Disaster Can Climate Change Be?

Above, you can see an image from the paper by Marsicek et al., just appeared on Nature. It shows a reconstruction from pollen records of the temperatures of the past 10,000 year or so, the “Holocene,” for North America and Europe. Note the black squares, showing how fast temperatures have been growing during the past 50 years or so. As all[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 3 comments Climate Change
Review of John Scales Avery’s book “Nuclear Weapons: An Absolute Evil”

Review of John Scales Avery’s book “Nuclear Weapons: An Absolute Evil”

  The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has recently announced (25/1/18) that they have moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock to two minutes to mid-night. A few days before this announcement was made a statement by General Sir Nick Carter appeared in The Times in the United Kingdom: “Our ability to pre-empt or respond to threats will be eroded[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 2 comments Book Review
Open Letter To The Education Minister Kashmir: Why Study Disaster Management?

Open Letter To The Education Minister Kashmir: Why Study Disaster Management?

Dear Minister, The number of disasters over the world is increasing year by year. These disasters include both natural calamities as well as human-made conflicts that take millions of lives every year and cause huge damage to property and livelihood. The deaths occur predominantlyin the poor countries. Jammu and Kashmir state, due to its geographical locations and formations is a[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 1 comment Kashmir
Violence In Kasganj Result Of Saffron Conspiracy!

Violence In Kasganj Result Of Saffron Conspiracy!

From Tilhara (Bihar, 1942) to riots during India’s partition in 1947-1948, and then from the riots in independent India’s Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bhagalpur, Bhiwandi, Delhi, Meerut and Ahmadabad to the demolition of Babri Masjid, and then from the riots in Mumbai, Surat, and Bhopal to the 2002 Gujarat massacre, nothing at all has changed in the nature of atrocities and riots,[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 4 comments Communal Harmony
The American Empire And Its Media

The American Empire And Its Media

Largely unbeknownst to the general public, many media executives and top journalists of almost all major US news outlets have long been members of the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).  Established in 1921 as a private, bipartisan organization to “awaken America to its worldwide responsibilities”, the CFR and its close to 5000 elite members have for decades shaped U.S. foreign policy[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
Photo by Ben Sutherland

CFSWs And Their Workers’ Rights

What about the stigmatized profession of sex work is? Is it the effect of work of past life as per ‘Karma Theory’(theory of Work) of ‘Vedas’ and ‘Purnanas’? According to the Indian thought, we nurture the theory of ‘karma’(work) which is the result of past life or earlier past of the life. The Karma theory stands for the law of[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 1 comment India
People waiting to get registered at Motihari District Government Hospital in East Champaran, Bihar. With so few doctors employed to work in the public sector of healthcare in India, this scene is typical.

Making India Healthy

In today’s world, where almost everything is a click away for many, access to healthcare, descents into alcoholism, and misperceptions about illnesses can still take us back to the eighteenth century. In this brief article, the idea is to give an overview of the interplay between the aforementioned determinants while presenting some evidence from the ground. The World Health Organization[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 1 comment India
The 2018-2019 Union Budget Is Good For Creating 116651 Cabinet Ministers But Nothing Else

The 2018-2019 Union Budget Is Good For Creating 116651 Cabinet Ministers But Nothing Else

  The average, declared, moveable and immovable assets of the 70 Union Cabinet members is around Rs 16 crores. The Union Budget 2018-2019 is Rs 1866418 crores after subtracting the 23% that will go on interest payments on borrowings (at interest rates and repayment terms set by the Government itself).  Assuming this average per cabinet minister extends to all politicians[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 Comments are Disabled India
The Budget – ‘ Divyang’ Left As ‘Viklang’

The Budget – ‘ Divyang’ Left As ‘Viklang’

  While the 2018 -19 has disappointed many and satisfied few: among those who were left dismayed are persons with disabilities. The PM named them ‘ Divyaang’ but not much has been done to uplift them socially and financially. The Nation Platform for the Rights of the Disabled persons ( NPRD) has issued a statement expressing concerns. The finance minister[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 1 comment India
 “Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 4: The Women’s Movement Of Chhattisgarh

 “Struggle And Create: My Days With Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi” – Chapter 4: The Women’s Movement Of Chhattisgarh

Of the eleven martyrs of the agitation on June 2-3, 1977, one was a woman – Anasuya Bai. The Chhattisgarh Mines ShramikSangh (CMSS), the first union under the red-green banner, set up seventeen departments in order to bring the entirety of a mine worker’s life under its umbrella. One of these was the women’s department that later took the form[Read More…]

by 03/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Fighting Peripheralization: The Dalit Movement Against A Hindu Caste-Wall In Kerala

Fighting Peripheralization: The Dalit Movement Against A Hindu Caste-Wall In Kerala

  The Dalit land rights movement in Vadayambady, Kerala, against a ‘Caste Wall’ built by the Hindu temple run by the upper caste Nair Shudras and their organization called Nair Service Society (NSS) is one movement that needs to be reckoned for its close relationship with the trajectories of the socio-political and economic history of anti-caste struggles in the region.[Read More…]

by 02/02/2018 4 comments Annihilate Caste
Budget Ignores Gandhian Economics

Budget Ignores Gandhian Economics

New Delhi / Mumbai, February 2, 2018: The Budget speech of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley kept harping on the fact that, the key focus of the government was farmers, rural poor, marginal communities and SC/ST, however, the overall announcements and allocations completely fell short of the intentions. The announcement of the celebration of 150 years of Gandhi is welcome but[Read More…]

Struggle For democracy: Problems With Plunderocracy And Imperialist Intervention

Struggle For democracy: Problems With Plunderocracy And Imperialist Intervention

  The problems mentioned in this article are in view of recent developments in a number of countries including Iran. The questions appeared stark during the days imperialism was preparing ground for invasions/interventions in Iraq, Libya, Syria and a group of progressives from these countries effectively or indirectly lent support to imperial interventionists (2i). All the banner bearers: Rightists, ultra-rightists,[Read More…]

by 02/02/2018 1 comment Imperialism
NREGA Budget For 2018-19 Falls In Real Terms

NREGA Budget For 2018-19 Falls In Real Terms

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) budget for 2018-19 is Rs 55,000 crores, the same as that of this year’s in money terms. (The initial budget of Rs 48,000 crores for 2017-18 was supplemented with Rs 7,000 crores in January 2018). Also, given the trend of rising pending liabilities at the end of every year, a sizable part of[Read More…]

by 02/02/2018 2 comments India
Jhalana, Jaipur’s Secret Paradise

Jhalana, Jaipur’s Secret Paradise

The Blue Bull had been killed by hyenas. The Striped Hyena pack, led by the matriarch had lived in this forest for generations beyond number. Their ancestors lived off the kills of tigers, until the last of those great hunters fell to the guns of men. Men, forever on their quest to kill, burn and destroy and call it conquest.[Read More…]

FILE - In this Feb. 28, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. as Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. listen. Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool Image via AP, File) ORG XMIT: WX101

Magician or Con Man:  Trump Addresses Congress

If a headline for the State Of the Union (SOTU) address was expected to be:  “A Truculent Trump Traduces Democrats”, it now could be “Trump Triumphs — Credits American People for Year of Successes.”  The speech was a litany of success stories, economic and military illustrated by tales of valor, grit, hard work, forbearance in the face of tragedy, the[Read More…]

by 02/02/2018 2 comments World
 Trump’s State of Union Address… A Nazi-Like Rally

 Trump’s State of Union Address… A Nazi-Like Rally

  Tuesday night, January 31, Donald Trump began his first State of the Union message by declaring, “Each day since [he took office], we have gone forward with a clear vision and a righteous mission—to make America great again for all Americans.” Then for 80 bellicose minutes he made clear what that meant. Trump threatened to unleash America’s “unmatched power”[Read More…]

by 02/02/2018 1 comment World
Tearing Down The Facade of Legitimacy: Industrial Agriculture And The Agrochemical Industry 

Tearing Down The Facade of Legitimacy: Industrial Agriculture And The Agrochemical Industry 

The chemical-intensive industrial model of agriculture has secured the status of ‘thick legitimacy’. This status stems from on an intricate web of processes successfully spun in the scientific, policy and political arenas. It status allows the model to persist and appear  normal and necessary. This perceived legitimacy derives from the lobbying, financial clout and political power of agribusiness conglomerates which, throughout[Read More…]

Wife and mother of lynched Nasirul Haque

Bengal’s Worthy And Unworthy Victims Of Hate Crimes

In a way, middle-aged Afrazul Khan of Maldah’s Syedpur, a migrant laborer from West Bengal was lucky to be killed by a Hindutva- induced fanatic in Rajasthan on 6 December last year than his three co-religionists in their early twenties who were battered to death by some Hindu villagers at Chopra in neighboring North Dinajpur six months earlier. Khan and[Read More…]

by 02/02/2018 2 comments Communal Harmony
Credit: Mickey Z.

How to (really) Help Homeless Women

For my entire adult life, I’ve tried to help homeless people. For years, I wrote for Street News — a once-popular advocacy newspaper mostly produced and sold by homeless people in New York City. I’ve spoken at rallies in support of homeless people from coast to coast. Mostly, I never left my house without a pocket full of change to give out[Read More…]

by 02/02/2018 1 comment Patriarchy
A Wonder ‘Nationalism Glass’

A Wonder ‘Nationalism Glass’

Despite the coming to power of a ‘Nationalist’ government, India continues to be full of anti-nationals. Government is so much struggling to build nationalism, but to little effect. Anti-nationals are everywhere. But there is nothing to worry for the nationalist government. They have a new solution at their hands in the form of ‘Nationalism Glasses’. CCTV recently came out with[Read More…]

by 02/02/2018 1 comment India
Photo by Ben Sutherland

Children In A Differently Marginalized Community

Prostitution is historically oldest stigmatized profession throughout the world. There are about 25 types of sex work according to its nature and places of service. The brothel is one of the oldest forms.  It is the place of trade and shelter of commercial female sex workers (CFSWs). It is considered as ‘line bari’ (a house in front of which, CFSWs[Read More…]

by 02/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Of Dawah And Beyond

Of Dawah And Beyond

  According to Collins Dictionary Dawah means , ´the practice or policy of conveying the message of Islam to non-Muslims”.Quran reading.com an online school registered in the state of Maryland USA, limits Dawah to “religious matters only like oneness of God, reading the Holy Quran in Arabic,  Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) being the last Prophet, believing in prophets and day of judgment, offering Salah etc. rather it is[Read More…]

by 02/02/2018 6 comments Communal Harmony
Casteist And Sexist Harassment Of Prof Sujatha Surepally

Casteist And Sexist Harassment Of Prof Sujatha Surepally

As part of a fact-finding delegation of women representing various civil society organizations and women’s organizations, WSS held a press conference at 12.30 pm at Karimnagar press club on 2 January, 2017 and visited Satavahana University (SU). Context: On 25 December 2017, dalit bahujan students of Satavahana University in Karimnagar, Telangana, held an event outside the campus gate infront of[Read More…]

Democrats, Donald Trump, And The Dark Underbelly of Economic Growth

Democrats, Donald Trump, And The Dark Underbelly of Economic Growth

Democrats are stunned by Donald Trump’s lack of culpability for racist rhetoric, Twitter tantrums, and international insults. They shouldn’t be. They’re the party of “It’s the Economy Stupid.” They should know that if a president inspires a bull market, creates a few jobs, and grows the GDP, he can “stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody” without[Read More…]

by 01/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Counter Solutions
The Ever Illusive Jhelum Dredging!

The Ever Illusive Jhelum Dredging!

(The most important flood prevention measure of dredging the river Jhelum and the Spill over Channel seems illusive as ever as one does not see any physical progress on the ground!) After the disastrous flood of 2014, the most important task of the government was to initiate immediate flood prevention measures. The top most measure was the dredging of the[Read More…]

by 01/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Kashmir
 The Importance of the Uncertainty Principle

 The Importance of the Uncertainty Principle

Special note: The author is not addressing Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle here. “I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of Imagination – What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth….” — John Keats Activists — in part, because their prose has become mostly soooooo boring and repetitive and ineffectual — need to[Read More…]

by 01/02/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Kashmir: UN Security Council Must Abide By Its Commitment

Kashmir: UN Security Council Must Abide By Its Commitment

The aftermath of partition of India had varied consequences; some were short term while others were long term. The unresolved long term consequence was and is the Kashmir dispute. Jammu and Kashmir was India’s largest princely state in 1947, with both an area of 84,471 sq. miles and international boundaries with China and Afghanistan. In 1945–46, the J&K regime collected[Read More…]

by 01/02/2018 2 comments Kashmir
What Rhymes With “Educate! Organize! Activate!”?

What Rhymes With “Educate! Organize! Activate!”?

  “Howard Zinn once wrote a book titled, You Can’t Stay Neutral on a Moving Train, and that’s especially true when you’re headed for a precipice. Right now, activists need to be bonded with the owner of the train or be the engineer.” — Richard Martin Oxman The answer to the title of this article shouldn’t be attempted with a[Read More…]

by 01/02/2018 2 comments Life/Philosophy
National Socialist Furniture: Ingvar Kamprad And The IKEA Vision

National Socialist Furniture: Ingvar Kamprad And The IKEA Vision

It seemed to be an act of counter-intuitive genius, one framed in a manner that could have been deemed both insulting and flattering.  You, dear customer, would be the one expected, not only to fork out for a product; you would also be expected to assemble it, to envisage the functioning of its parts, to have the means by which[Read More…]

by 01/02/2018 1 comment World
Cosmetic Plastering: No bona fide Unity In Sri Lanka’s Unity Government?

Cosmetic Plastering: No bona fide Unity In Sri Lanka’s Unity Government?

Since 2015, Sri Lanka has been governed by a Unity Government comprising of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of the President and United National Party of the Prime Minister. In the run up to local elections (scheduled in February 2018)preserving the presidency and the power and privilege it brings with it has become a political necessity for the Sri Lankan[Read More…]

by 01/02/2018 1 comment South Asia
‘Banal Nationalism’ And RSS

‘Banal Nationalism’ And RSS

‘Banal Nationalism’ (Michael Billing’s phrase) means plain daily nationalism. It ‘covers the ideological habits which enable the established nations of the west to be reproduced’. These habits ‘are not removed from everyday life,’ ‘but very much ingrained in them might tactically be used to describe nationalism in non-western countries, particularly India.’ It is usually nurtured together with love for parents,[Read More…]

by 01/02/2018 1 comment Communal Harmony
Credit: https://drambedkarbooks.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/992856_10153522442034652_4242881516948850527_n.jpg?w=555&h=389

Dalit Social Memories: Countering In Their Own Way 

Since social memory and myth are used as tools of social dominance, they have a very significant role in politics of assertion. Different sections of society have diverse kinds of memories and myths related to their caste and prescribed indentures, sentimental remembrance of their past as well as their ancestors’ tales of heroic deeds. These social reminiscences have been manipulated[Read More…]

by 01/02/2018 1 comment Annihilate Caste
Photo by flickrPrince

Life Lessons From Tea

I started working in India in the Anamallai Hills, part of the Western Ghats as they tapered down all the way into the tip of the subcontinent. Before that I had worked for five years in bauxite mining in Guyana, South America and lived on the bank of Rio Berbice, in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest. But that[Read More…]

by 01/02/2018 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Pic©https://thenortheasttoday.com/assam-majuli-en-route-to-become-indias-1st-carbon-neutral-district/

Majuli-World’s Largest Riverine Island Facing Extinction Threat

Majuli- a picturesque island nestled amidst the mighty Brahmaputra river traversing through the sate of Assam, is proudly holding the tag of being world’s largest freshwater river island. Apart from natural beauty, the island is a home to rare species of flora and fauna making it a biodiversity hotspot and an offbeat tourist destination. It specifically attracts birding aficionados as[Read More…]

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